The Green Fireballs

The mysterious Green Fireballs began appearing over America's southwest, primarily New Mexico, in late 1948. These "visitors" seemed to be paying particular attention to sensitive research and military installations including Los Alamos and Sandia Base. Both Los Alamos and Sandia Base were heavily involved in the testing and construction of atomic weapons.

The official theory is that the Green Fireballs are simply meteors with a heavy copper content. Those that disagree with the official theory recount several of the first reported sightings. Both civilian and military pilots witnessed several of the unusual visitors on December 5, 1948. These pilots reported that the fireballs travelled parallel to the ground or upwards, not at all like the path of a meteor.

Fearing Soviet espionage or sabotage, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) immediately dispatched a two-man team to New Mexico. They had a Green Fireball sighting of their own on December 8, 1948. The Air Force investigators reported seeing an intensely bright, large green light that was travelling about 2,000 feet above their aircraft and moving almost flat and parallel to the earth.



Air Force Project Blue Book's Captain Edward J. Ruppelt travelled to Los Alamos National Laboratory in early 1952 to interview scientists and technicians about their views on the Green Fireballs. Ruppelt was surprised that none of them accepted the conventional meteor explanation. Some believed the visitors were Russian spy devices. Others had an even more chilling theory.

Ruppelt recorded that many scientists believed that the fireballs were actually "extraterrestrial probes projected into our atmosphere from a spaceship orbiting several hundred miles above the earth". Below is a copy of the April, 1952 Life magazine article that explored the extraterrestrial theory.

 

 

 



Meteors? Russian spy craft? Visitors from another world trying to determine the extent of the threat our atomic program presented? The Green Fireballs remain a mystery to this day.