Los Alamos Conference on Aerial Phenomena, 1949

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Confe1·ence on AERIJ\.L PBENOMENA
Page 13
Dr. :ta.Paz: mutee chiefly. If' you look closely snd Yithout interference 'from
outside liglrts, yellmrs, oranges and reds.
Dr. :era.clbury: But it's apparently a yellowish-green we 9re t.a.1k1ng G.bout here.
If you can eee a bluish-green, you can aleo a,ee yellows and whites.
Dr. laPaz: '!here is some defect, possibly in the vision, that %'8qu1ree a
pretty high intensity in that yellow-green before it9s uoUd 1n a meteor fall.
Dr. Bradbury: Looks like greenCZ
Dr. LaI'az:
Yes it does, that0s perfectly true. Now here's a peculiar property
of thoae yellov.-gr"en fireballs - same people vill ref'er to them as red. The
only exple..ne.tion that I can tbillk of is they report afterwards that they m:e
what ~a@ exposure to a very green-blUioh light i"ather thnn -the Ugb.t itself•
I donit lm.ov if that 1s correct. And, incidentally, due to your observation,
I donqt kno\-r how to explain the ina.bility of meteor 9baervers to report this
:;.-enega.d color, but, I eim;ply know it doesn't occur.
You So through long lists,
like those of the American Meteor Society, you will tilld, I i.JDaSi.ne, not l 1n
100 where a geen is mentioned. Even in the case of the
? ehowere, were you
have largo nUinbera of very brigt.t colors• let me recall eooiething that allot
you must have seen.
The • • • • • shower of Oetober 9, 1946 - ~
here who so.v
that? '!'here veN large numbers ot e:.ctremelJ bright fireball.a at that ti?r.e.
0
Kaplan himaelf' recalled that they were blue, maybe blus•sreen, but never yellow
green.
And I observ~d those und.er very to.vorable circumstances - ve were
ny1ns a.t about 20.,000 f et in e. B-29.
We had no absorption ettecta at ell.
They def'ir:ite1Y' did not shov hues or green.
Dr. Bradbury: You mentioned the noiae problem also. The noise occurs only
when ·the meteot' i tselt blows up, breaks up?
D:t•. La.Paz: No, tb&t isn't strictly ·i;rue.
You have, in addition to the hollow
sound, the normal sound of ~
breaku!) of the • • • • •
You have headwind; you're
near the path. You get a real ahock; 'to-r 1J1Stance, we have ••••• apparently­
broken up by that hea.dwave, shock wave, _in the caee ot the !ford.en County-P'alla.
And then from the turbulence and retlections eJ.l the way along the path,~
liill have a. rumbling 'Qbich nyxy endure oot for the matter~ a tenth of a
second, bQt for m1nutee, and they~re rw rough.
Dr. Bradb"UrY: But these occur fairly close to the tra,Jeetory?
Dr. Le.Paz:
Ro. In the case ot ~
Norden County Fells aaa,n, they were heard
clear doim to . . . . . City. •Shakes buildings that rar away.
The •••• o Pe.Us
were> heard up to 300 miles from the point ot 1-()act.
Dr. ~48.dbury: Large number of observations ••.••..
Dr. LaPa.z: Bo, the.re again I checked very care:tw.ly because I we concerned.
I am trying desp<erately to give e. logical explanation to the abaence ot 8011Dd.