Welcome back! This week we're taking a look at the timeline of green fireball sightings.
Missed Part 1? Don't worry! Click below to get started.
The photo above was drawn by Dr. Lincoln LaPaz.
December 5, 1948
At 9:05 pm, a USAF transport flying from a base in Colorado to one in Arizona sees a green, flare-like light just west of Las Vegas, NM. At 9:27, they see another green flare rise up 500 feet from the ground. They report by radio their sightings to the Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB).
At 9:35, another USAF transport radios KAFB to report a green light west of Las Vegas, NM while flying due west. They thought it might be a shooting star, but "it was too close to the ground." The pilot said when he first saw the light, it was coming straight at him and he was so stunned he attempted to jerk the plane out of the way. The light then fell toward the ground — a pale green light with a pale green trail.
December 6
An agent from the KAFB's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) interviews the pilot and copilot from the second plane.
A security officer sees a greenish flare that lasted 2-3 seconds over Sandia Base. He doesn't report this sighting until December 11.
December 8
At 5:45, two agents from OSI take off from KAFB and fly to Las Vegas, NM. The weather is completely clear with unlimited visibility. At 6:33, ten miles east of the Las Vegas radio range station, they both see a brilliant green light 2,000 feet about them. It was moving at a very high speed, and they compared it to a USAF flare, but said it was larger and brighter. The light lasts about two seconds, then burns out and breaks into orange fragments. The agents stay in the area for about 90 more minutes, but don't see any other lights.
December 9
The two OSI agents and their district commander interview Colonel William Hayes at KAFB. He describes a bright light he saw in "the latter part of 1947."
One of the agents, Stahl, takes off from KAFB and flies to the area where they saw the green light the night before. He finds nothing. The other agent, Neef, travels to the University of New Mexico to interview Dr. Lincoln LaPaz.
Dr. LaPaz tells Neef the phenomena he's investigating cannot be meteors, and that there are other unexplained sightings that took place near Los Alamos, NM, Memphis, Tennessee, and even in Russia. LaPaz speaks with colleagues and learns of similar green lights seen near other military installations, including a nuclear facility in Washington state.
December 11
Major William Godsoe, who was an Army liaison Intelligence Officer at Sandia Base, tells Neef there are no Army maneuvers, or rocket or flare experiments being conducted in the region.
December 12
Neef's visit on December 9 prompted Dr. LaPaz to systematically study the Geminid meteor shower, which was one of the only recognized meteor showers active during that time. His observations confirmed his feeling that the extremely bright lights being reported were not being caused by Geminid meteors. Since December 1915, he had observed 414 meteors during Geminid periods, and not a single one was green.
LaPaz and two Air Force officers leave Las Vegas and head to Santa Fe after unsuccessfully looking for debris. It's 9:01 pm, a week almost to the minute after the first green light sighting. LaPaz looks to his right and sees a bright green fireball five feet high. It was traveling east-to-west and was only three or four degrees above the horizon, traveling almost completely horizontal. The fireball wobbles, breaks into 3-4 smaller fragments, and burns out. The three of them listen for a sonic boom, but hear nothing. At 9:50 they return to the car and head for Santa Fe.
When they reach Santa Fe, LaPaz gives a report to the chief of security at the nuclear installation. He learns that some of the Los Alamos perimeter guards had also seen the huge fireball. He plots the sighting, triangulating with the perimeter guards and their observations.
He determines the fireball traveled an almost-perfectly horizontal path around 50,000 feet above sea level, maybe less. It apparently traveled almost directly over Los Alamos, along a length of 25 miles traveling about 10 miles per second (36,000 mph).
LaPaz, impressed by the sighting, is now forced to reconcile with what he saw. He wrote in his notes that he is "now convinced the various 'green flare' incidents reported to the OSI are not meteoric in nature."
December 14
LaPaz and the two Air Force officers, Phillips and Clark, speak with intelligence and security officers stationed at the installation. LaPaz has collected letters from other scientists who concur with him that the objects must be artificial. He suspects the phenomena might be a result of a classified project in Los Alamos, and requests the assistance of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in studying them.
During this study period, he tries to recreate the green color of the objects using his lab materials. Copper salts super-heated using a gas burner flame are an almost perfect match.
