DOE-UAP-D004, Los Alamos Conference on Aerial Phenomena, 1949

Official Conclusion

No consensus reached; phenomena determined to be inconsistent with conventional meteorite falls but no alternative explanation confirmed; project transferred to Project Grudge for continued investigation.

Official Description

This document is a transcript of a 1949 conference held at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (now Los Alamos National Laboratory), Los Alamos, New Mexico. Attendees included several eminent scientists and physicists, many of whom had contributed to the development of the first nuclear weapons during the Manhattan Project. The purpose of the conference was to discuss and gather hypotheses to account for the nature and origin of a phenomenon involving “green fireballs” that had been reported over a period of several months in the vicinity of the laboratory. The group did not come to a consensus on a likely attribution for the phenomenon, though a leading hypothesis was that the observations may have been related to meteors entering the atmosphere at a shallow angle and high altitude. Dr. Edward Teller suggested that if not a “material body,” an “electron phenomenon” might be the cause, while Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, an expert specializing in meteorics, expressed that “nothing like this, to [his] knowledge, has ever been observed in the case of meteorite drops.”

Key Findings

• →Dr. Lincoln LaPaz concluded that the green fireballs, observed traveling nearly horizontal paths at 8-10 mile altitudes across distances of 25-100+ miles, were 'not conventional meteor falls' based on their unique color (~5200 angstrom yellow-green), constant angular velocity, absence of sound, absence of recovered fragments, and absence of animal disturbance.
• →At least 10 incidents were confirmed by sufficient independent observers as analogs to the 'Starvation Peak' green fireball of December 12, 1948, with approximately 20 additional lower-confidence sightings.
• →The green fireballs were concentrated geographically near atomic bomb installations including Los Alamos, Sandia Base, and White Sands, a pattern LaPaz noted and suggested could indicate 'defensive maneuvers of a higher U.S. Command,' though he was rebuked for this suggestion.
• →Captain Neef disclosed that Project Sign had been renamed Project Grudge, and that the New Mexico green fireball phenomena had been included within its scope; the Air Force was identified as the primary gathering and reporting agency for these phenomena.
• →Dr. Edward Teller performed blackboard calculations on light, speed, kinetic energy, and shock wave characteristics and concluded the phenomena 'ought to be a material body' but might alternatively be 'an electron phenomenon,' while noting the absence of sound at the observed speed was theoretically incompatible with a solid object of appreciable size.

Extracted Entities