PROJECT 10073 RECORD CAR~ 2. LOCATION Oklahoma City CONCLUSIONS Olathe, ~sas L1ncol:4, Nebr Probobl y B olloon 3. DATETIME CROUP L TYPE OF OBSERVATION Possi bl y Bolloon JBcGround-VIaual 0 GroundRadar 0 Wos Ahcroft Probobly Aircraft 0 AI,..VIsuol D A lrlnterc:pt Rodor Po ni bl y AI rcroft PHOTOS e. SOURCE Waa Astronoml cal Meteor Probobl y Astronomlcol Possibly Astrono m lcol LENGTH OF.OBSEAVATION 1. HUMBER OF OBJECTS 9. COURS! 0 Other Insufficient Ooto for Evqluotlon D Unlcnown 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SICHTIHO 11. COMMENTS Many reports from Nebraska, Missouri & Wide arES o:r obsei"vation indicates Oklahoma o:r starenge ebjects - sky and explosion of some objs like red and green flares. ATIC FORM 3:19 (REV 26 SEP 52) streaks in the tha t look ed l:JPFf~57 Yt-IA047TNGA'J1Gl1 PP RJ:SDE~J RJEDHP RJEP!!~ RJEDI<F DE RJEDNG 2A -- Ft1 COHDR 31ST ADIV DEF SNELLING AFS MINN TO RJEDEN/CO!".DR ADC ENT ,'\FB COL O RJEDUP/COi !DR AT I C HP AFB OHIO RJEPH~/DIR OF HJTELL HQ USAF tJ.~SHDC RJEDKF/ CmiDR CADF GRANDVI Dv AFB t~O A chltd' s painting ol lho great Kansas- Oklahoma fireball of J 7 December J 9SS . II Ill th e slty up as bright os cloy. Becetuse lirebolls this b ig ore rare ond occur with~ out warning, scientists must depend on re- . ports from th e gene ral public. No really great fireball has ever been photographed In flight. This is why lhls pointing has sci- voluo, Two vlows OriJ shown hero, In one the fireball Is coming across the slty. The other lfeltJ shows lhe explosion at the end. Even rough sketches mode on the spot a re valuable to fireball study What does a scientist do with reports that just can't be true ? What must he do when the reports keep coming in steadily? Today scientists at the RAND Cor- poration arc tackling an unsolved mys tnncous arrival of light and sound from tho fireball suggests that the sound travels not as sound-but as elec tro- magne tic radiation. All s uch radiation light, radio waves, e tc.-trave l s nt the spee d o f light. This will g ive u s the simultaneous arrival. It also gives u s at least two specific problems to experiment with: 1. Ilow can a fireball send out rndio waves? .. . tery that has been bot11ering nstrono- atmosphere. So if you see a fir eball 100 miles away you should hear the sounds about 8 minutes later . . 2. How nrc these wnves changed into sound waves nt the point of observation? . mers for 150 years. The mys tery is about reports that when giant m eteors flash across the sky the re arc noises too. But all the reports nrc positive that sight and sound come at the same The modern answers t o these questions open up a whole vast area for study. . . At first glance this doesn't seem to be a problem. C ertainly one of these big meteorites blazing across the sky almost as bright as the sun itself mus t Of course many of these reports Perhaps It's Electricity . sweep up a gigantic wind. This very well might explain the hissing sound reported by many eyewitnesses. But It Can't Happen? Just the same there is n violation of n major physical Jaw involved. The cli!-t11rbing p:at of these reports is that lh\! .sounds !\re he:trd ut C:\actly th e snme time the fircbnll is seen. If you stop to think that the fireball is probahly ~ hundred miles or even more nway ... how come the sound arrivt:s at the same time as the light? . The r;prccl of light is IR6,000 miles lJt'r .-tt t>~trl 'J'Itc spcrd of s<und i. m:ly aLuut 1/ 5 of a m ile p er second in the came from what we used to c;all "un-There is much evidence to su ggest educated people." Because of this, that m eteors do send out clcctromag- their s tories w ere rejected . Educated ne tic waves of some kind. In 1896 in people kne w sight and sound could n ot Madrid, Spa in, the city electric light arrive togcth.cr. system Jit up d u ring the passage of n It is si milar to the sight-sound prob-: .' fireball. The Sikhote-Aline (Russia) lem of a je t plane p assing h igh over-. meteor of 1947 produced current in a head. You all know that the sound disconnecte d telephone wire. It was seems to come from far hack or' t1ae. enough current to g ive the repaim1an plane. You hear it to the cas t, for ex- a heavy jolt. The RAND researchers ample, l lltt h ave to look west to see the would like to find more such evid e nce. jet itstlf. A f~w ohwncrs have rcpo:-tc<l nne Thus, b ecause of what was known tualions of the compass needle durini; about the speed of sound, most scicn-. m e teor passage and during m c tco:: tists rejected these rep orts of hearin g showers. Measurements of the earth'~ and seeing the fire h all at the sam e time. magnetic field have shown rises durin~ Trying To Sol.re It T<Jd,,/s scicntisls thin k tlt.tt the re- ports 1111)' h e gt-nuine;. Jf :;o, tlte ~,illlul-. fircha11 passage. are sometimes heard a : s talic nn 11rdinar\': tdios, :md C :ln:lcli:u ph} ;;il~ic;t han: shown tl . t sowc hri!;lt .If you have ever seen a bright fireball-and by that we an OtiC that lights the. night s ky up a s bright as day . or in the daytime s tops e veryone in their tracks-you -:~tnr,.,-ttion to the scicnHsts who are working on this problem. Address your letter to Dr. D on ald L . ~amar, RAND Corporation, 1700 Main Street, Sunta Moiuca, California 00106 . : . . Do not write CURRENT SCLENC&. SQ 0~1AHA NEBR DTG 1 8/ 03342 DEC 55 PD FOLLO~JING ADDITI~l!t,L I NFORtiATION COLLECTED BY ADCC SUBNITTED F OR YOUR I NFORriATIOi'J PD - LE ON!: DASH THAK I tJ Sl<:' AlS) .0. BI G !='LAS ! AELY: EIC:!T DP.SH SROKEI: SOUND ECr:O DAS FOU!: ?OSITIOf1S 1<":4611 l<L25C5 KL~:335 KLS2~2. ) PD ADCC REMARKS DASH THE Le1C0 L N NEBR J0Un>JAL AND LINCOUJ P.AILROAD YARD REPORTED LOUD TO t10DEHATE EXPLOSIONS I N AREA AT REPOP.TED TH1S PD .A. :S~P.CHC~.~?T FLYif:~ 1\T 25~;;? FT V l l\A~:s.'~S CIT'.' AREA REPORTED TO 738TH AC&H SQD!J OLATHE KANSAS THAT IT triAS AU10ST HIT BY SOtlE RED AND GREEN FLARES PD LOVTHY FLIGHT SERVICE AND 33TH ) PAGH TlJO RJEDNG 2A ADIV ADCC OKLAHOMA CITY OKLAHO~IA RECEIVED REPORTS OF UNKNOWN OBJECTS IN SA!~E GENERAL AREA PD A SURVEY OF FLYI!JG ACTIVITIES OF THE 13TH AND 14TH FIS SIOUX CITY IOHA RSVEALS l~O A!l1CRAFT I N AREA AT T It1E OF .REPORT PD 18/r.722Z DEC RJED ~G :.; _: Mosl pe.ople know thor you see and heor a high-flying fet plane 'or different spoh In the . . : . . sky. This Is because sound travels so much slower than does light. However some people "second sound" tho I seems to come directly _from. the jet. This may be related to .. . the fireball problem. ' meteors sent out a signal over and . .' above the radar that was trained on This is the older theory. It's a little hard to confirm with controlled experi- ment. Fireballs do n ot come on a them. There seems enough evidence to suspect that meteors may send out electromagnetic signals. . Another electrical, and very differ- . ent, hypothesis is based on the fac t that . the earth and atmosphere form a gi- gantic electrical condenser. . . . If these signals do reach the ohservcr the next problem is-how do they get ~ : .. 'changed into sound? .. Biological Answers " ._-._ .. For about a quarter of a century, More r ecently, and more imagina- :- : . . .:_ the standard hypothesis said that the tively, the lastest theory is that the .. . ... "radio" waves from the meteor were electromagnetic radiation from the fire- . changed into sound by rlon-lincnr rcc-ball is "rec tified" (changed to sound) . : tificntion. This simply means that. ob-within the body of the ohse rver. . . . . jects near the observer somehow acted Experiments in the last cOuple of . ns n atural radio receivers. These would years have shown co"'clusiVely that . : >. . -work much like the old-fashioned crys-radiation at radio frequencies can be ... : tal receive r. heard cJjrectly by some. individuals. Any metal object which is covered The mechanism ''of the process is still by an oxide layer may convert radio largely unknown. . frequencies to soun~ frequencies. Tile Consequently, students of. the puz~ - . -galena crystal worked like this. Today._ zliog fireball sounds believe that peo~ we tailor-make transistors that do the . ple do hear the fireball at the same in- .. same job. A man standing near an old~ stant they see it, and tha t the processes . ,.' model, rusty automobile would have involved take place within the body . better luck than a man in a new car, itself. :H.corcling to this theory. But n11tf'h more d~ta is n'3cd r d , ann' . If w;\ves f ro m the m e teor at radio RA~D st:ientists nre !:cckink~ fn r vol- . : . . frequencies nre thus altered to sound untecrs. They want to hear from any frequencies and the metal is able to person who has "heard" a fireball. If vibrate at these sound frequencies, the you know of such a prrson send the sound may become audible. data to the address given in the box on Thus we have a pattern: our previous page. Do not send it to t. l\[Ptcnr emits snmething 111 the Ctrn!I'F.:->1' Scw.:-rcF.. Scientists a.re ec;pe~ radio b.md. Tltio; t ravelc; at tlac same cially intcres'td in the 1cports of y'Otuag speed as the li ght waves. Both then. people. Children can hear higher frc- rcnch the observer together regardless quencies than adults. There is some of the distances involved. evidence that they may be better ob- 2. Some natural oxide-metal near servers tha n thei r pnrents. Get. busy . . the observer changes the radio to now. -WALTF.R SCOTT HOUSTON The great daylight fireball ol Sil<hote-AIIne (Russia) brought no teporls of sounds. If did create Induced currents in wire s neor the ground. The great fireball of March 24, 1933, was seen from Texos to Colorado. It le ft this luminous lrall In the sunset sky. Such pho togrophs when token should be sent to scientists lor study. The Texas fireball of January 10, 1917, brought many reports of hissing sounds simurtoneous with the eye sighting. In this