Los Alamos, 1948: inspetores de segurança veem bola verde descer, seguir na horizontal e sumir sem ruído

INCIDENTS OF 13 AND 20 DECEMBER 1948: The unusual feature of these two incidents is that there were report[ed] two red lights trailing the green fireball. In each case observers agre[ed] that the trailing lights retained a constant position with respect to ea[ch] other and to the green light. Also, these two sightings are the only tw[o of] all the green fireballs where a sharp change of direction in the vertic[al] plane was observed. One of these incidents, that of 20 December, was ob[served] by Atomic Energy Security Service Inspectors, while the other was obser[ved by a] truck driver and his wife. That of 20 December was observed in the Los [Alamos] area, while that of the 13th of December was observed southwest of Las [Ve...]. NOTE 2

COPY. INCLOSURE #6. The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Institute of Meteoritics. December 30, 1948. TO: Lt. Colonel Doyle Rees, Commanding Officer, District No. 17, Office of Special Investigations. From: Lincoln LaPaz, Director, Institute of Meteoritics. Subject: Anomalous luminous phenomena (Third Report). In the second report of this series, a description was given of the real path through the atmosphere of the green fireball of 1948, December 12, 9h 2m (plus or minus 30s). On the basis of corresponding observations made from one station near Starvation Peak, New Mexico, and a second station near Los Alamos, New Mexico, this fireball was found to have appeared near a point with the coordinates: latitude 35° 50' N, longitude 106°, 40' W, and to have disappeared near a point with the coordinates: latitude 35° 45' N, longitude 107° 05' W, traversing an almost horizontal path, at an elevation of about 10 miles above sea level, with a length of about 25 miles, at a velocity of approximately 10 miles per second. (The minimum path length consistent with the observations was found to be about 11 miles, the corresponding velocity then falling between 3 and 6 miles per second, depending on the duration adopted.) On the basis of corresponding observations of the greenish-white fireball of 1948, December 20, 8h 54m p.m. made by two pairs of Los Alamos observers, it has now become possible to work out another approximate real path. As will be apparent from the original accounts of the observations made by AESS Inspectors William D. Wilson, Buford G. Truett, Clifford E. Strang, and Physical Security Inspector George S. Skipper, the fireball of 1948, December 20 was observed under less favorable conditions than the green fireball seen by five persons on the night of December 12. However, on the basis of the original accounts of the observers named above, of sketches supplied by these four individuals on December 29 and of transit observations made by Captain M. E. Neef and the undersigned on the same date at the points of observation (viz., 35° 48'.9, 106° 18'.4 for Strang and Skipper and 35° 55', 106° 23' for Wilson and Truett), it has been possible to establish reasonable concordance between various points on the fireball path as seen by the two groups of observers. Because of the very short baseline (only 8 miles long) between the two points of observation and the difficult conditions under which the fireball of December 20 was observed, it is my opinion that the real path derived from the December 20 observations deserves considerably less weight than that obtained from the December 12 observations. NOTE 3

December 30, 1948. Lt. Col. Doyle Rees -2-. It is found that the fireball doubly observed by Messrs. Wilson, Truett, Strang, and Skipper appeared at a height of at least 10 miles and descended at an angle of about 45° to the vertical (according to Truett's estimate) to point C at an elevation of only 2.3 miles above the horizontal plane through the point from which Strang and Skipper observed. As the fireball approached the point C, its path levelled off and from C to its point of disappearance, E, the fireball followed a nearly horizontal path approximately 7.5 miles long, moving with a velocity of between 3.75 and 7.5 miles per second, depending on the duration estimate adopted. The coordinates of the projection of C on the earth are 35° 56', N, 106° 30' W, and those of the projection of E are 35° 57' N, 106° 23' W. The forward extension of the fireball's trace on the earth as determined by the above projections, passes some six miles to the north of the town of Los Alamos. It should be noted that the descending branch of the path of the fireball was observed by Inspector Truett alone, but he was absolutely certain that his observation of this portion of the path was correct. It should also be noted that no sound was heard, although the distance from the observers to the fireball and from the fireball to the earth could have been only a few miles at most. I have no hesitancy in testifying that an object possessing the path and the other peculiarities observed by Messrs. Wilson, Truett, Strang, and Skipper was not a falling meteorite.

Dr. LaPaz: I refer to the one attempt that was made on the night of December 19. We set up a photographic patrol - the AESS, as you probably know, has been interested in this problem. They brought a lot of speed graphics and so on and set them up. Mr. Maxwell, a member of the group ...., and they were able, I think the night before, to photograph a bright Geminate. But on the night of the 19th nothing was observed. The next night, however, the night of the 20th there was an incident which I believe might have been photographed, but by that time the equipment had been disbanded and nothing was obtained.