Green fireball of 30 January 1949
30 January 1949 · New Mexico and Texas
Summary
The first record of the 30 January 1949 fireball in these files is a message from the commander at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, dated 31 January 1949. It reported a sighting of an identical object at 2255Z on 30 January by about 30 people and estimated at least 100 total sightings. It listed reports from El Paso, Albuquerque, Alamogordo, Roswell and Socorro, and said all appeared to be the same object at different points in its trajectory. The message said the office would search for an impact point unless told otherwise.
Lincoln LaPaz of the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics wrote a report on 21 February 1949 to the Office of Special Investigations. He gave the time as 5:54 p.m. MST and said more than 100 eyewitness accounts were collected within twelve hours. Surveys by ground and by a T-11 aircraft followed in New Mexico and Texas. He reported that several thousand people saw it, that it was visible at about twelve miles altitude and disappeared at about eight miles, on a path about 143 miles long. He recorded no detonations or rumblings, and said that no evidence of fallen fragments had been found. He considered it the only one of the anomalous objects that gave any indication of having been a meteorite fall.
At a classified conference at Los Alamos on 16 February 1949, LaPaz described the January 30 fall as one of the brightest observed fireballs. He said that in ten days of interviews he had found not one substantiated account of noise. Dr. Teller reasoned that a solid object would have to be small to produce no sound. Dr. Bradbury said he did not feel that the meteor explanation was out. A letter read at the conference from an Air Force general suggested the observers might have seen a reflection of Northern Lights.
An 17th District OSI summary table lists three 30 January reports. Roswell is logged as blue-green, W to E, about 200 observers, no sound. In an August 1949 report, LaPaz wrote that air and ground searches in early February found no fragments. He described later dust collections for copper particles by Dr. Crozier, who concluded the results were negative or inconclusive. LaPaz agreed with that conclusion for now. He recommended ground collections along the January 30 earth-trace.
What the files say
“All appear to be same object at different points in trajectory.”
Page 106 →“no evidence whatever supporting the belief that solid fragments fell to earth from the January 30th fireball has been discovered.”
Page 82 →“Within twelve hours after the fireball appeared, more than 100 eyewitness accounts had been obtained by its director through personal interviews.”
Page 81 →“we saw not one substantiated account of noise produced by the meteorite fall.”
Page 5 →“Still don't feel that the meteor stuff is out.”
Page 25 →
Also discussed in
Explanations in the record
What the documents themselves say the event was, as recorded. Not our assessment.
- Conventional meteorite fall: LaPaz rated the fireball as possibly a meteorite fall, the only one of the anomalous objects under investigation to show any such indication. — UAP sightings near Sandia Base, New Mexico (1948-1950), page 82
- Bradbury said at the conference that he still did not consider the meteor explanation ruled out. — Los Alamos conference on green fireball sightings (1949), page 25
- A letter read at the conference suggested observers may have seen a reflection of Northern Lights, described as phenomena and not material. — Los Alamos conference on green fireball sightings (1949), page 18
- Reports of noise near the end point were attributed by LaPaz to oil-well dynamite blasting rather than the fireball. — Los Alamos conference on green fireball sightings (1949), page 6