Maywood, New JerseyJanuary 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the early morning of January 21, 1956, a resident of Maywood, New Jersey saw an unusual object in the sky while looking out a window. The witness was near a company yard at around 3:49 a.m. (local time) when they spotted what they described as a round object roughly the size of a medicine ball. It was moving northward across the sky and was visible for about 15 seconds before disappearing behind buildings.

The object glowed with mixed colors of yellow, blue, and green. According to the witness, the front of the object appeared to contain active, churning gases, while several tail-like shapes extended behind the ball. These tails were fainter and less bright than the main object itself. The witness noted that the object seemed to be in active motion and compared the overall appearance to "a ball symbol" or similar celestial body. The glow from the object was so bright that it reflected visibly off the sky around it.

The Air Force concluded that this sighting was probably a meteor. The file does not indicate any radar confirmation or additional investigative analysis beyond the witness questionnaire. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 11 pages.

Reported location

Maywood, New Jersey

Date of incident

January 1956

State / country

NJ / US

Page count

11 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 24

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 11

View transcribed text

E a i 3
Roc PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD 3
E- 1. DATE : {2 LOCATION ; 12. CONCLUSIONS
ins - b : . OD Was Balloon |
~ .. |.21 January 1956 - . -. [Maywood, New Jersey = iln) Probably Balloon
A 3. DATE-TIME GROUP - | 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION : a ls Ba loon
3 Locol 0349 (N) AR Vosha Visio 0 Ground-Radar 2 iabay Alverats
E BE! GMT 21/ 084 9Z O Air Visual . : 0 Air-Intercept Radar 0 “Possibly Aircraft
| 's PHOTOS 2 18. SOURC 5 FE 10 Was Astronomical Meteor: |
REE D.Yes : : BXProbably Astronomical i
FE - : XPNo civilian 3 0 Possibly Astronomical
E- 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION | 8. NUMBER OF-OBJECTS |.9. COURSE TE Ope Re
i i ; a {eifisled: Data for Evaluation
A nknown ‘
4 Ra 15 seconds one J north :
| 7 ]10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS 7 : |
f - | One roundobject size of medicine ball, Meteor sighting. i
Rg . Colors yellow, blue and green mixed,
~ | several tails extending behind ball
E. sharply outlined, ball seemed to be
3 . gases,

: : {

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E i) ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) :
a As .
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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28964626