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A number of so-called Green Fireballs were reported in the skies of the southwestern United States, particularly New Mexico, beginning in late 1948. Such sightings worried some in the government, who noted that the reports were often made near to sensitive research and military installations, such as Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratory (then Sandia base). Furthermore, the strange green balls of light appeared suddenly and were seen many times per month near such New Mexico installations, but hardly anywhere else, quite unlike a natural phenomenon like meteors. They arguably remain some of the best-studied and most perplexing unidentified flying objects.

Meteor expert Lincoln La Paz headed much of the investigation into the fireballs, and quickly concluded the objects were artificial, perhaps secret Russian spy devices. But the green fireballs were seen by so many people of high repute, including LaPaz and scientists at Los Alamos, that everybody agreed they were real. Secret conferences were convened at Los Alamos to study the phenomenon and in Washington by the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. In December 1949, Project Twinkle, a network of observation and photographic stations was established but never fully implemented. It was discontinued two years later, with the official conclusion that the phenomenon was probably natural in origin. LaPaz and others never agreed.

History

The earliest reports came from late November 1948, but were at first dismissed as military green flares. Then on the night of December 5, two separate plane crews in New Mexico, one military and one civilian, asserted that they’d each seen strange green lights, though about 20 minutes apart. The military pilots were near Las Vegas, New Mexico and described the light as intense, and if a flare, it was the strangest one they had ever seen. The civilian pilot was near Albuquerque and described the light as pale green. It appeared to come straight at them on a collision course, forcing the pilot to swerve the plane.

As if that weren't enough, on the same night a dozen green fireballs were seen traveling generally north to south between 7:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. by security guards at military installations in the vicinity of Albuquerque and Las Vegas, N.M. The sightings near Albuquerque were at Sandia base, a highly sensitive installation where atomic bombs were assembled near Kirtland Air Force Base. The next night, a similar green light was again spotted for a few seconds over Sandia base.

The following day, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at Kirtland AFB began an official inquiry, fearing the fireballs might be related to espionage and sabotage.

Two AFOSI investigators--both of whom were experienced pilots--themselves witnessed a green fireball while flying an aircraft the evening of December 8. They said it was about 2000 feet above their craft, roughly resembling the green flares commonly used by the Air Force, though "much more intense" and apparently "considerably brighter". The light seemed to burst into full brilliance almost instantaneously. Their report stated that the light was "definitely larger and more brilliant than a shooting star, meteor or flare." The light lasted only a few seconds, moving "almost flat and parallel to the earth". The light’s "trajectory then dropped off rapidly" leaving "a trail of fragments reddish orange in color" which then fell towards the ground.

The next day, AFOSI consulted Dr.Lincoln La Paz, an astronomer from the University of New Mexico and a world renowned meteor expert who had previously worked on top secret military projects. La Paz himself saw a "green fireball" on December 12, which was also seen at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, enabling La Paz to determine the trajectory using triangulation. From this La Paz discovered that the center of the trajectory was straight over Los Alamos.

In a classified letter to the Air Force on December 20, La Paz wrote that the object moved far too slowly to have been a meteor, and furthermore, left no "trail of sparks or dust cloud" as would be typical of meteors flying at low altitudes. Other anomalous characterics were the intense lime-green color (completely unlike the Geminids meteor shower being observed at the same time), low altitude of only 8-10 miles yet exhibiting no sound, flat rather than arced trajectory, and turning on and off like a light switch. Later he was to add that the sightings were confined almost entirely to northern New Mexico and no fragments were ever found despite extensive searches using previously successful triangulation techniques.

La Paz suggested that security patrols at Los Alamos should attempt to photograph the green fireballs. However the duration of the fireballs was so brief (1-5 seconds) and the onset so unexpected that they were unsuccessful. Other green fireball sightings occurred over Los Alamos on December 11, 13, 14, 20, 28, and January 6, 1949, raising the level of concern by security and military intelligence. The green fireball on December 20 was most remarkable in that it was seen to change direction, quite impossible for a meteor. Two security guards saw it first descending at a 45 degree angle, then leveling off at an altitude of about 2 miles. Even though at most only a few miles distant, no sound was heard, just as for the other green fireballs.

On January 13, 1949, the following message was sent to the Director of Army Intelligence from Fourth Army Headquarters in Texas: "Agencies in New Mexico are greatly concerned. ...Some foreign power making 'sensing shots' with some superstratosphere devise designed to be self-disintegrating. ...The phenomena the result of radiological warfare experiments by a foreign power. ... the rays may be lethal or might be ... the cause of the plane crashes that have occurred recently. ...These incidents are of such great importance, expecially as they are occurring in the vicinity of sensitive installations, that a scientific board be sent ...to study the situation.

On January 30, the brightest and most widely seen green fireball sighting occurred near Roswell, New Mexico. The next day the FBI was informed by Army and Air Force intelligence that flying saucers and the fireballs were classified top secret. La Paz interviewed hundreds of witnesses, with help from the FBI and military intelligence, and again tried to recover fragments by triangulating a trajectory, but was again unsuccessful.

After his own sighting and interviewing numerous witnesses, La Paz had concluded that "green fireballs" were an artificial phenomenon. On February 8 he met with Dr. Joseph Kaplan, a UCLA geophysicist and member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Kaplan, himself a meteor expert, agreed they could not be conventional meteorite falls and informed La Paz that he knew of no secret military projects that could explain the fireballs. He found La Paz's data on the fireballs unsettling and felt an investigation was needed in the name of national security.

La Paz's informal scientific study for the Air Force quickly became formal, being called the “Conference on Aerial Phenomena," convening at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in mid-February to review the data. The assembled people—both military personnel and civilian scientists—were informed by La Paz that the fireballs were not the result of any secret military project, according to Dr. Kaplan. La Paz reiterated that he was absolutely convinced the green fireballs were not conventional fireballs or meteorites. Dr. Edward Teller felt they couldn't be material objects because they made no sound and suggested they might be some unknown atmospheric electrical phenomena. In any event, he thought they couldn't be foreign probes of some kind.

The scientists felt that a network of instrument stations should be established to photograph and analyze the fireballs. Despite the recommendation and the continuation of the green fireballs at a rate of about half a dozen a month, La Paz and AFOSI oddly encountered both resistance and apathy from Air Force authorities responsible for setting up such a network.

By April 1949, similar sights were reported over a nuclear-weapons storage facility at Fort Hood in Texas. The intrusions were deemed so serious that, unlike the Air Force, the Army quickly set up an observation network. Sightings continued through August, the most spectacular being on June 6 when a hovering orange light, 30 to 70 feet across and a mile in the air was spotted. Finally it started moving in level flight, then burst into small particles.

On July 24, a green fireball was observed falling close to Socorro, New Mexico. Dust samples were collected at the School of Mines there and were found to contain large particles of copper. La Paz found this highly significant since copper burns with the same yellow-green color characteristic of the green fireballs. He also noted that if the copper particles came from the green fireballs, then they couldn't be conventional meteorites, since copper was never found in dust of meteoritic origin. La Paz suggested that further air and ground samples be taken in areas where the fireballs were seen.

At the same time, AFOSI informed La Paz on investigations of "anomalous luminous phenomena" between early June and early August. Many of the green fireballs were now descending on vertical paths, whereas initially they almost always traveled horizontally.

Another Los Alamos conference convened on October 14. No one disputed the reality of the phenomena and nobody could explain it. Among the puzzles was the sudden onset and the high concentration of sightings in New Mexico, quite unlike a natural phenomena. Despite this, it was decided the fireballs were probably atmospheric in origin. Instrumented observations -- photographic, triangulation, and spectroscopic -- were deemed essential to solving the mystery.

On November 3, Dr. Kaplan brought the plan to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board at the Pentagon. Kaplan by this time had decided the fireballs might be a new type of rare meteor. Nonetheless, most of the scientists remained puzzled by the brightness, trajectories, and absence of sound. Seeming to contradict his meteor hypothesis, Kaplan also said, "this high selectivity of direction seems to indicate that some group was trying to pinpoint Los Alamos with a new sort of weapon." Concerns were expressed about the possibility of panic and the need for continued secrecy.

Project Twinkle

Finally, on December 20, after nearly a year of foot-dragging, the instrument observation program was approved and Project Twinkle was born. The first instrument post (consisting of two officers) was established at Holloman Air Force Base in February 1950. Only one other instrument post was ever set up. La Paz criticized Project Twinkle as inadequate, arguing the green fireballs were worthy of "intensive, systematic investigation". Twinkle did manage to record a few events, but the data collected was reported to be incomplete. Besides, it was stated, no funding had been provided for follow-up data analysis. In addition, the fireball activity near the observation posts seemed to virtually disappear, as noted in a report from September: "It may be considered significant that fireballs have ceased abruptly as soon as a systematic watch was set up."

Over the objections of La Paz and others, the final report on Project Twinkle (see external links) concluded the green lights were probably a natural event, maybe sunspot activity or an unusual concentration of meteors. The report stated, "There has been no indication that even the somewhat strange observations often called "Green Fireballs" are anything but natural phenomena." Twinkle was discontinued in December 1951.

Despite efforts to downplay the fireballs as natural, a fellow-up report in February 1952 from the USAF Directorate of Intelligence recommended that Project Twinkle remain classified, as no scientific explanation had been found and "some reputable scientists still believe (they) are man-made." There was continued speculation that they were some kind of spy device.

Opinion of Los Alamos Scientists

Edward J. Ruppelt, director of the USAF Project Blue Book UFO study, stated he visited the Los Alamos National Laboratory in early 1952 and spoke to various scientists and technicians there, all of whom had had green fireball sightings. None of them believed they had a conventional explanation, such as a new natural phenomenon, secret government project, or psychologically enlarged meteors. Instead the scientists speculated that they were extraterrestrial probes "projected into our atmosphere from a 'spaceship' hovering several hundred miles above the earth." Ruppelt commented, "Two years ago I would have been amazed to hear a group of reputable scientists make such a startling statement. Now, however, I took it as a matter of course. I'd heard the same type of statement many times before from equally qualified groups."

Green Fireballs after Project Twinkle

Despite the discontinuation of Project Twinkle, green fireball were still occasionally sighted and La Paz would continue to comment. In April 1952, the green fireballs and Project Twinkle were written up in a famous Life magazine article titled "Have We Visitors From Space?" A recent green fireball incident over Arizona from November 1951 was mentioned. La Paz again repeated why the fireballs couldn't be ordinary meteors. The article also described La Paz's UFO sighting near Roswell, New Mexico on July 10, 1947, about the same time as the famous Roswell UFO incident. La Paz, however, remained anonymous. Also described was a 1949 UFO sighting by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto. (Life magazine article)

In January 1953, La Paz was quoted in newspaper articles saying the green fireballs were artificial devices and might be a Soviet missile scouting the U.S and other parts of the world. According to Ruppelt, the green fireballs reappeared in September 1954. One the size of a full moon was seen streaking southeast across Colorado, lighting up Denver, and into northern N.M. It was seen by thousands at a football stadium in Santa Fe. Dr. LaPaz was called back in to investigate, but told a reporter that he didn't expect to find anything. From April 3-9, 1955, five green fireballs were reported in New Mexico and two in northern California. At least 3 were reported within minutes of one another mid-morning of April 5. Dr. La Paz stated, "This is a record . . . I'm sure the yellow-green fireballs aren't ordinary meteorite falls. I've been observing the skies since 1914, and I've never seen any meteoritic fireballs like them."

There have been occasional reports of green fireballs since then, often near sensitive government or military bases: Randles and Houghe note that a Royal Air Force pilot had a near-collision with three unusual green fireballs near Manchester, and were also sighted near a nuclear power plant in Suffolk in 1983. (Randles and Houghe, 92)

Astronomer Sightings of Green Fireballs

Other astronomers besides La Paz known to have sighted green fireballs in New Mexico during this period were Clyde Tombaugh, who in 1956 said he had seen three, and Dr. Donald Menzel, who sighted one in May 1949 near Alamogordo. In a letter to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, Menzel admitted the phenomena must be real and expressed puzzlement, wondering why the fireballs should be so confined to New Mexico if they were natural phenomena. Ironically, Menzel eventually became a notorious UFO debunker, and in two of his books disingenuously stated he was never puzzled by his sighting, instantly identifying the object as an ordinary meteor fireball.

Other UFO Investigations of Dr. Lincoln La Paz

Besides La Paz's consultations with the Air Force on the green fireballs, in 1954 he was also involved with astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in a search for near-Earth orbiting satellites on behalf of the Army. In August 1954, a story broke in the press that Tombaugh and La Paz had found two of the satellites only 400 and 600 miles out that had recently come into orbit. La Paz at first vehemently denied that he was involved, and later denied that anything had been found (see Clyde Tombaugh for details).

At least three witnesses, including two involved with Army and Air Force counterintelligence, also claimed that La Paz was brought in after the Roswell UFO incident to interview witnesses and reconstruct the trajectory of the crash object. (affidavit of one witness). One counterintelligence agent claimed La Paz told him he thought the object got into trouble, touched down for repairs, took off again and then exploded. The two of them then speculated about possible origins. La Paz allegedly held the opinion that the object was an unoccupied extraterrestrial probe.

In 1964, La Paz was also involved peripherally in the investigation of the famous Socorro UFO incident in which a Socorro policeman named Lonnie Zamora saw a small egg-shape object land, saw two humanoid figues near the object, then when he approached to within 100 feet, the object blasted off and rapidly disappeared. La Paz interviewed Zamora and vouched for him as a witness.

La Paz's last known comments on the green fireballs occurred in 1964 during a visit by astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a consultant to the Air Force's Project Blue Book. Hynek was also investigating the Socorro incident. According to Hynek, La Paz continued to think the green fireballs were artificial, but now believed the fireballs, and also the Socorro craft, to be secret projects of the U.S. government and complained bitterly that this information had been withheld from him.

Green fireballs continue to be reported now and then, but their origins remain a mystery.

Sources

• Jerome Clark, Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomen, Visible Ink Press, 1993.
• Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, Visible Ink Press, 1998.
• Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956, Chapter 4 online
• Bruce Maccabee, The UFO-FBI Connection, Llewellyn Publications, 2000
• Brad Steiger, Project Blue Book, Ballantine Books, 1976
• Jenny Randles and Peter Houghe; The Complete Book of UFOs: An Investigation into Alien Contact and Encounters; Sterling Publishing Co, Inc, 1994; ISBN 0806981326
• Another article on green fireballs and Project Twinkle

References

Curtis Peebles, Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Scuaer Myth, 1994, Smithsonian, ISBN 1-56098-343-4.

External links

• Project Twinkle final report

• Ruppelt's book

• Photo of a green meteor

• UFOs