Green Fireballs (1948-1951)
A wave of anomalous green fireball sightings over New Mexico beginning December 1948, distinct enough from ordinary meteors (near-horizontal paths, silent flight, a specific hue never matched to known metals) that the Air Force treated it as classified alongside "flying discs." Prompted a secret February 16, 1949 Los Alamos conference bringing together military officers, the FBI, and Los Alamos physicists including Edward Teller; investigator Lincoln LaPaz concluded at least some incidents were not conventional meteorite falls. LAPAZ SET OUT WHY HE DID NOT THINK THEY WERE METEORS. In the seventh of his numbered "Anomalous Luminous Phenomena" reports to Lt Col Doyle Rees, 23 May 1950, he recalls listing "ten significant differences between the bright green horizontally-moving fireballs observed in the interval 1948, December 5-20, and typical meteors", among them: that "genuine meteors are rarely observed to move in horizontal paths"; that their height was far below the "40 or more miles" normal for meteors; that the velocity was less than a typical meteor's "and yet is considerably greater than the speeds of the V-2 Rockets or jet planes or of conventional flares"; that meteorites penetrating that low are "always accompanied by very violent noises" while "no noises whatever have been observed"; and that where meteors brighten gradually, "the green balls appeared almost instantly at their full brightness."
In the UAP recordRuled into the unidentified-phenomena thread on 3 September 2026 by reading this entity's record. The deciding phrase is this entity's own: "anomalous green fireball sightings". An editorial classification of which thread this entity belongs to; it rests on no page and does not claim to.
9 of 13 connections resolve to a document you can open.
Documents5 behind these connections
Documents behind these connections
- General Correspondence of Sandia 1950-05-25
- Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I 2024-02-01
- James Tuck correspondence on the Los Alamos green light sightings 1970-11-23
- Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, Convened by Office of Scientific Intelligence, CIA, 14-18 January 1953 1953-01-17
- The Sary Shagan Weapons Testing Range 1973-12-20
13 connections
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led the investigation into the phenomenonGeneral Correspondence of Sandiaprinted p. 2 · PDF p. 21 checked against the page
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This map sayswas established to photograph them, and photographed noneThe document saysProject TWINKLE was established in the summer of 1949 to investigate a series of UFO reports witnessed by numerous observers in Nevada and New Mexico. These UFOs were described as "green fireballs" streaking across the skyReport on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I, 2024
printed p. 15 · read off the page footer; the printed number matches the PDF page on every page held from this report
rendered and read by eye — the grade this project quotes fromCaveat THIS IS THE EDGE TWINKLE GETS BECAUSE IT IS THE ONE THE REPORT ESTABLISHES. Nothing is drawn from TWINKLE to Project GRUDGE: printed 15 says "The literature is not clear if Project TWINKLE was officially supported by the original Project GRUDGE", and an arrow would settle what the source says cannot be settled. The result is quoted on the TWINKLE entry - one camera secured, moved between locations, and "no photographs of the fireballs were ever taken." -
he signed the Air Force summary of themGeneral Correspondence of Sandiaprinted p. 2 · PDF p. 21 checked against the page
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the conferences were convened to discuss themsame document as the row aboveprinted p. 2 · PDF p. 21 checked against the page
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the Atomic Energy Commission security office at Los Alamos was on the distribution list for the Air Force summarysame document as the row aboveprinted p. 3 · PDF p. 22 checked against the page
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was still collecting witness accounts of them in 1970James Tuck correspondence on the Los Alamos green light sightingsPDF p. 1 checked against the page
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compiled in the same Air Force file, which sorted every sighting into green fireball, disc, or probably meteoricGeneral Correspondence of Sandiaprinted p. 1 · PDF p. 20 checked against the page
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concluded there were no sightings near sensitive atomic-energy establishments, 32 months after the Air Force said the oppositeReport of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, Convened by Office of Scientific Intelligence, CIA, 14-18 January 1953printed p. 16 · PDF p. 26 checked against the page
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a green unexplained light over a nuclear-weapons site, 23 years later and on the other sideThe Sary Shagan Weapons Testing Rangeprinted p. 5 · PDF p. 3 checked against the page
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spent ~20 minutes at the blackboard trying to physically explain itGreen fireball / Project Twinkle history; Feb 1949 Los Alamos conference
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participated in the classified conference on the phenomenonGreen fireball / Project Twinkle history; Feb 1949 Los Alamos conference
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attended the classified conference on the phenomenonGreen fireball / Project Twinkle history; Feb 1949 Los Alamos conference
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AFSWP's point of contact on the classified investigationGreen fireball / Project Twinkle history; Feb 1949 Los Alamos conference
Notes on this record
The 1948-1951 green fireball sightings over New Mexico nuclear installations.