Green Fireballs, Part III

Then Who?

When it comes to trying to assign blame for the fireballs, we obviously enter into realm of pure speculation. Of course, that can make it all that much more fun! It is, however, worth remembering that everything you read about this part of the unknown, whether from my proverbial pen or that of another, should be taken with a salt block.

So, let us suspend our disbelief for a moment, temporarily banish our doubts, and presume for the sake of argument that the fireballs cannot be explained as a purely natural phenomenon. Again, we can break down the possibilities into some basic, logical categories and then consider the pros and cons of each based upon the limited evidence we have available to us.

For our purposes, we can break down the possibilities thusly: The Natural World (private citizens, governments—foreign and domestic—and standard conceptions of extraterrestrial biological entities [EBEs]) and the Realm of the Supernatural (beings that in some way transcend the closed system of the natural world—conceivably angels, demons, or [to adapt a designation from John Keel] intelligent ultraterrestrial entities [IUEs]).

Naturalistic Possibilities

Frankly, if the fireballs have an intelligent origin, I tend to think it is a natural one. Anyone who has seen a holiday fireworks display knows full well that mankind is more than capable of producing pyrotechnics very similar to what observers describe and I know I saw. In fact, a determined hoaxer could probably purchase most of what would be needed from a hardware stores (though he would have to be either very brave or very stupid to start fooling with explosives in the quantities required to produce the fireball I saw). It is certainly well within the capability of even third rate governments.

Still, there are a number of definite problems with this interpretation.

• There is the issue of motive. Why in the world would anyone—either a government or a private citizen—waste time (not to mention risking life and limb) launching gigantic green sparklers across the sky over the course of 60-70 years?
• Hoaxing would make sense if the fireballs provoked a crop circle-esque media circus that set the world to gabbing. While the fireballs do attract attention, they’ve never even come close to becoming a “major” attention getter.
• While some private citizens might enjoy setting things off like this, one might expect them to get bored with the same thing over and over for six decades. Why not some purple fireballs, or perhaps blue or red every now and again?
• And why in the world would you haul these things all over two countries to shoot them off? Perhaps Mexican green looks different from Texas green. If not the same people, we would then need to address how we can have sixty years of copycats who somehow produce identical results but leave no clue as to how they communicated their methods to each other.
• The lack of physical evidence is another problem. Standard fireworks would need some kind of launch point and people to do the launching. Like the crop circle hoaxers, it is more than likely that something of this sort (or someone) would have turned up by now. Also, many conventional explosives would leave some kind of physical trace (i.e. the picture found here).
• The fireballs’ trajectory is an issue too. If the fireballs all basically fly parallel to the ground, they must either be launched that way (from a plane perhaps) or their unexploded form must include control surfaces of some kind that would allow the projectile to transition to horizontal flight after reaching the appropriate altitude. While both are physically possible, they only complicate matters further when it come to explanations. Aircraft launching what amount to missiles in the vicinity of nuclear facilities and large metropolitan areas would be likely attract attention, and traces of significant control surfaces capable of surviving the speeds the fireballs reach would almost certainly be found by investigators (and a number of well-funded, determined attempts to solve the mystery have been made).

All of these problems make it difficult for me to fully commit to any of the standard, comfortable explanations.

And what of the EBEs? Jerome Clark mentions a statement from Project Bluebook (more about my discussion of Bluebook with the Chief Historian of the CIA in the future) head Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who claimed that at the Los Alamos nuclear research facility “scientists theorized that the fireballs were projectiles fired into earth’s atmosphere from an extraterrestrial spacecraft” (Clark, 263). My current problem with this idea (aside from general issues regarding physical visitors from planet Morpholon in the Alpha Zeta Tau cluster) is that to the best of my knowledge, no one has connected the fireballs to other, more standard UFO phenomena any more than they’ve connected them to a terrestrial aircraft or naval vessel. Unless perhaps the Los Alamos scientists had access to information that I do not (entirely possible) it seems a first rate leap of logic to bring aliens into this discussion.

Supernatural Possibilities

While I tend to favor supernatural explanations to many paranormal phenomena, I run into the same issues with IUE participation that I do with EBE: I have seen no clear evidence (beyond plain weirdness) to suggest that there are any connections between the fireballs and the supernatural. I could only arrive at that sort of explanation by “wanting” it to be true hard enough to believe it is there. On the other hand, there is one distinct possibility that might, with further research, provide that connection. If Clark is correct in arguing that the fireballs are related to the smaller, odder southwestern lights he discusses in The UFO Book, then IUEs might be brought back into play. These lights tended to be very small, often were only a few inches across, were less than twenty feet off the ground and seemed to be under some kind of intelligent control. “Most of the slow-moving lights changed color from red to green. One was white with a red blinking light and one had …[a]…’cone shaped affair’ on its rear” (Clark, 259). These descriptions bear at least a superficial resemblance to the light observed at the infamous “Skinwalker Ranch” researched by the National Institute for Discovery Science in Utah. Those lights did all sorts of interesting things like chasing cattle and even vaporizing dogs.

So, it would take two strong evidence streams (one to connect the fireballs to the “Killeen Lights” and another to establish that the Killeen Lights are fundamentally similar to those at Skinwalker Ranch), but that door might still be open a crack. While I don’t think it likely, neither do I think we can categorically rule the supernatural out as at least a vague possibility. We simply do not have enough evidence.

Final Thoughts on the Fireballs

The Green Fireballs seem to be as much—if not more—of an mystery today as they were in 1947. As we have seen, they do not seem to fit comfortably into any of the ready-made categories humanity has manufactured to try to box up the paranormal into handy packages. Based on the currently available evidence, no single explanatory paradigm can theoretically answer all the difficult points connected with the phenomenon. The resulting see-saw effect as one teeters back and forth between theories is definitely unsatisfying.

One good side to the fireballs is that they do not have the same unsettling effect that some other aspects of paranormal might. Unlike ghosts, fairies, angels, demons, aliens, etc., I do not believe that there is even the slightest chance of a fireball “coming to get you” or “going bump in the night.” It is one of those nice, impersonal questions that, while I wouldn’t mind getting to the bottom of it, I am perfectly content leaving unanswered.

Up next: "Christian Attitudes Towards the Paranormal"

References:

• Clark, Jerome. The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Visible Ink, 1998.
• Kelleher, Colm A. and George Knapp. Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah. Paraview Pocket Books, 2005.

Images:

• Rawree. "Green Fireball" FXhome. http://media1.fxhome.com/plugin-images/1408/thumbnail
• "Green Fireworks for the 4th?" http://gothamist.com/2007/07/03/green_fireworks.php
• Photo of Strange Lights at Skinwalker Ranch. Utah UFO Hunters. http://www.aliendave.com/files/Photos/Ranch/Ranch16002anominserts.jpg
  

Green Fireballs, Part II

Theories on Origins

At the most basic level, there are only two, obvious possibilities that can explain the fireballs: Either they are the result of natural phenomena or they are due to some intelligent source. Let’s consider the options for both:

Nature

The fireballs by themselves seem to occur randomly and without warning. An intelligently controlled (or at least initiated) phenomenon would presumably follow some pattern. While some have argued one seemed to emerge in their nearness to nuclear facilities, we really can only arrive at this correlation by ignoring the fireballs that occur elsewhere (i.e. the middle of Ft. Worth). Unless we take a step of blind faith and presume that there must be a pattern, from what I’ve read, we cannot arrive at this conclusion based on the evidence.

Next, one would be justified in asking, "If the fireballs are anything more than randomly occurring natural events, what would their purpose be?" Presumably our own citizens and government, foreign nations, demonic or angelic entities, and hypothetical extra-terrestrials all have better things to do than shooting off gigantic green flares at odd hours on weekends over the course of at least six decades. Again, unless we presume in advance that there must be some purpose, we have no direct evidence to suggest that they are anything more than pretty (strange) fireworks.

Also, there is at least a precedent for naturally occurring green colored meteors. A number of astronomy websites make mention of green tinged examples from the Leonid showers. The picture above and the one to the right show two examples. All of this, at least, would seem to point to the fireballs being some sort of heretofore unidentified natural phenomena.

Intelligence

But the arguments for nature do not have it all their own way. There are a number of points in favor of the fireballs being a result of something more than run-of-the-mill causes.

The fireballs do not seem to really fit any known natural phenomena. They behave unlike anything standard science can currently explain. Their trajectory is almost always parallel to the earth, like an aircraft, while “shooting stars” usually enter the atmosphere at a sharper angle. The fireballs never leave the long trail or dust cloud associated with meteors. They have appeared and disappeared at altitudes ranging from 2000 to more than 60,000 feet. While they move fast, they are definitely slower than standard shooting stars. Anyone who observes one—including the present author—would say that they could never mistake one for a standard meteorite. The green Leonids pictured above look nothing like what I saw in the sky that night.

Another problem facing naturalistic origin theories is the complete lack of an impact sites or significant remnants. I know that the example I observed was huge and not very high in the air. It was large and low enough for me to be able to discern the individual sparks coming off of it as it sailed past. Something like that should make some kind of impact, somewhere. Had it been a standard meteor of that size, still intact at that altitude, we could rightly expect Ft. Worth to be sporting a very large crater the next morning. And yet, nothing.

The fact that copper traces have been found in connection with the fireballs might make sense at first (powdered copper burns green and is a common ingredient in fireworks), but it might actually deepen the mystery. While virtually every paranormal site or book I’ve consulted remarks on the near impossibility of copper meteorites, according to one scholarly source there are some types of meteorites (Chrondritic) that contain significant amounts of copper. Also, some iron meteorites contain trace amounts of copper that might burn off (though it’s doubtful that “trace amounts” can account for the sheer size of the average fireball. Still, copper meteorites seem to be rare, at least, as several alleged specimens have been listed as “discredited” and “disproved.”

The fireballs’ initial appearance at lower altitudes and standard flight path result in a particularly knotty problem for the space-object interpretation. Are we really expected to believe that an object from space made up of rare materials enters earth’s atmosphere at a high rate of speed, somehow manages to slow itself, and then levels off its flight path at heights as low as 2000 feet before igniting itself into all of its sparkly green glory for one to five seconds? Accepting this involves as much, if not more, blind faith than presuming the fireballs have patterns and purpose.

Two more items, dealt with quickly, on the side of intelligent origins:

• Jerome Clark, in his article on the subject in The UFO Book lumps the green fireballs in with other, stranger lights that also appeared in the southwest. These lights are smaller and behave in ways that virtually preclude natural explanations (interaction with observers, radical and repeated changes in direction, etc.). Unfortunately, he never draws a strong connection between the two phenomena. The correlation seems to be merely that they all occurred in the southwestern states and Mexico. If someone could find evidence to fully and completely link the two, the case in favor of intelligent origins would be strengthened notably.
• One possible explanation can be dismissed quickly: the idea that the fire balls are nothing more than human-made space junk making random re-entries into the atmosphere. While this might account for of the presence of copper, there are a number of obvious problems with this idea. First, the fireballs were observed as early as 1947, a full ten years prior to Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite. Also, this theory does not address any of the problems raised by the fireballs’ odd flight paths, slow speed, and (at times) low altitudes. Whatever the explanation, it isn’t that simple.

If we accept the idea that the fireballs are of some kind of intelligent origin (and I am by no means certain that I do), then other questions quickly present themselves. Someone (or something) must be responsible. But who? That is indeed “a three pipe problem.”

To be concluded in Part III….

References:

• Clark, Jerome. The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Visible Ink, 1998.
• "Green Fireballs." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_fireballs
• “Green Meteorite (??) spotted North of Toronto.” http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread311869/pg1
• Kenkman, Thomas, Friedrich Hörz, and Alexander Deutsch.” Large Meteorite Impacts III. Geological Society of America, 2005 p. 294. http://books.google.com/books?id=QMwt9iaYA9gC
• E's..ARN's History of Meteorites. © 1996,2006 Astronomical Research Network. http://www.meteorites4sale.net/MET_E.HTM.
• First Image from: “Blink and you miss it,” Flotsam and Jetsam, http://thetomzone.vox.com/library/posts/tags/astronomy+geek/
• Second image from: Lodigruss, Jerry. “Leonid Fireball and Persistent Train.” Catching the Light. http://www.astropix.com/HTML/F_COMETS/LEONID1.HTM.

Green Fireballs, Part I

A Personal Experience, and an Interesting Discovery

I thought I might start things out with one of my own firsthand experiences. I was living in Ft. Worth, Texas in the Fall of 2001. I lived in one of the many apartment complexes that clog the Hulen Street area, south of Interstate 20. It was the evening of Monday, October 15, and I was watching a football game. I was camped out on the couch. (The Cowboys v.s. the Redskins. Both teams were 0-4, and the resulting game was one of the worst—and funniest—I’ve ever seen.) Our apartment patio, which I could see from the couch, more or less faced east/north-east, towards Interstate 35, leading towards the center of Ft. Worth.

At some point during the game, I was vaguely staring out the sliding glass door into the “darkness” (it is never really dark in a city that size) when I saw, very clearly, a huge green fireball shoot across the sky. It was parallel to my line of sight, which means it would have been moving from south-southeast to north-northwest. I could judge neither its size nor its altitude with precision at the time, though it looked huge, far bigger and slower than any meteor or shooting star I’ve seen. It threw off showers of green and (to a lesser extent) golden sparks, like a giant sparkler. If I were forced to guess, I would put it somewhere in the vicinity of I-35.

Given the proximity to the terrorist attacks on September 11th, my first thought was “They’ve shot down an airliner!” I rushed outside to the patio, but could see nothing more.

Obviously, no airliners had been shot down, but I later learned that I was not the only observer. A number of people mentioned seeing it, particularly a secretary I knew from work. She was out in her front yard in Burleson, about fifteen miles south of Ft. Worth when she saw the object shoot directly overhead, heading straight for Ft. Worth. Her observation would confirm my impression that it was somewhere near the I-35 corridor.

It was some weeks later when I visited the Half-Price Books on Hulen and picked up an paranormal encyclopedia by Jerome Clark. I was very surprised to learn that these green fireballs are nothing new, and, despite decades of sightings, no one seems to have the foggiest idea what they are. Dozens of sightings have occurred in the southwestern United States since at least the 1940s. They seem to appear most often in New Mexico (Clark stated that the farthest east one had been seen was Lubbock, TX—I think I can revise that a little farther east), and had a nasty tendency to show up in close proximity to secret nuclear research and design facilities. No fireball had, to the knowledge of researchers, ever reached the ground. The only physical evidence of a fireball’s passage was the presence of tiny particles of copper in the air, something almost completely unheard of in a normal meteorite.

Recently, I picked another encyclopedia by Clark, this one devoted entirely to UFOs, where he provided more detail on the history of the phenomenon. There, he quotes from a 1949 Air Force Office of Special Investigations list which described the fireballs’ “common characteristics” as:

"a. Green color, sometimes described as…yellow green [inapplicable colors omitted]. b. Horizontal path, sometimes with minor variations. c. Speed less than that of a meteor, but more than any known type of aircraft. d. No sound associated with observation. e. No persistent trail or dust cloud…"(Clark, 257).

This describes my sighting with such accuracy that had it not been for the fact that I am positive that I had never encountered a description of the phenomena before I saw it, I would wonder if I was somehow constructing my sighting subconsciously.

Given the sheer number of observed and recorded occurrences, I would think that the existence of the fireballs should be established beyond reasonable doubt. Having seen one, it certainly is for me. The question then becomes, of course, where do these fireballs come from?

Continued in Part II....

References:

• Clark, Jerome. The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Detroit: Visible Ink, 1998.
• "Green Fireballs." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_fireballs
• Image: Painting by Mrs. Lincoln LaPaz based on her own sighting, http://www.project1947.com/shg/articles/lifemag52.html