Researchers Found Three Tiny Spheres After a Fireball Lit Up the Sky

On a summer evening in 1949, a fireball was reported over the Socorro area of New Mexico. The next morning, researchers began collecting particles from the air. They hoped to find something that could link the sight in the sky to what was on the ground.

In the days after the report, the findings changed. Copper particles appeared first, followed by an increase in smaller particles. Then researchers found three spheres that looked perfectly round. Tests showed an unusual reaction to cobalt, a metal. The researchers did not know where the spheres came from, but they had never encountered anything like them before.

The Air Was Tested After the Fireball

The fireball was reported on the evening of July 24. The next morning, researchers collected air near Socorro. They passed it through a device that trapped particles on a plate coated with a sticky substance.

The first collection turned up particles that tested positive for copper. Some were fairly large; others looked like tiny grains. But the results were inconsistent: one collection contained many copper particles, while the one immediately afterward contained almost none.

Three Spheres and a Yellow Halo

The size of the particles found in later collections changed. Very small particles, which had barely appeared at the start of the tests, became more common. One collection, taken about 41 hours after the fireball, contained three tiny spheres.

The researchers tested them with a substance that reacts to cobalt. After exposure to vapor, a yellow halo appeared around each sphere. The report described the reaction as strong. The spheres were about 12 microns wide, or roughly one-hundredth of a millimeter, and looked perfectly round when viewed from above. The researchers wrote that spheres like these were unusual in their experience.

What Remains Unknown

The researchers could not determine whether the copper particles or the spheres came from the fireball. They wrote that similar particles could be found in the area even without any connection to it, leaving their origin unclear.

The three spheres were trapped on a collection plate. Tests left yellow halos around them, but provided no answer to where they came from.