Astronomer and mathematician who founded the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics. Recruited by the Air Force in December 1948 to investigate a wave of unexplained green fireballs reported over Los Alamos, Kirtland Air Force Base and other New Mexico nuclear and military installations, concluding the objects' flight characteristics did not match known meteors.
Lincoln LaPaz was a mathematician and astronomer who became one of the country's leading authorities on meteors, founding and directing the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics from 1944 to 1966. In December 1948, following a spate of unexplained green fireball sightings clustered around Los Alamos, Kirtland Air Force Base and other sensitive nuclear and military sites in New Mexico, the Air Force brought LaPaz in to assess the phenomenon. After triangulating several sightings, including one he witnessed himself, LaPaz reported to the Air Force that the objects' brightness, color, low altitude, flat trajectory and lack of sound or debris trail were inconsistent with ordinary meteors. His findings helped prompt a February 1949 Los Alamos conference of AEC, FBI and military personnel and the creation of Project Twinkle, a short-lived observation program set up to gather further data on the fireballs before being discontinued in 1951 with the sightings officially attributed to natural causes.