Background
A purported UFO crashed on the San Agustin Plains in New Mexico circa July 1947. For many years investigators have tried to locate fragments from this crash. Chuck Wade has made trips to the possible site of the crash and brought back a number of metal fragments and one sample of plastic-like material. The metal samples have been examined by other laboratories using EDS (Energy dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy)1 elemental analysis and other tests. The objective is to determine what information infrared spectroscopy can provide about these fragments and the “plastic”. It should be noted that infrared analysis is used for molecular determination of substances and does not reveal information regarding metal alloys or its elements.
Conclusions
- Infrared analysis shows that all metal samples including the plastic are covered with environmental debris from where the samples were found, such as mineral silicates and carbonates, common components found in dirt. Small amounts of organics are detected which may be humic material in the soil or contaminants. A trace amount of a silicone is found exclusively in Wade 3. This is probably contamination, perhaps from a lubricant.
- The most interesting of the metals is Wade 6, not only because of its unique thickness, 60 mils (1.5 mm), but it also has a protein-containing material on the surface which suggests animal origin, besides being coated with the soil minerals and trace organics from the environmental debris listed above.
- It can be speculated that the source of Wade 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8, with thicknesses of 1-2 mils (0.02-0.05 mm) are aluminum foil, which has a thickness of 1 mil (0.02 mm). The remaining samples, Wade 2, 12, 21 and 6 are thicker and clearly cannot be related to aluminum foil. Their source remains unknown.
- The plastic material is composed of polyethylene which is a very common man-made polymer.
- No radiation above background was detected from any of the metal samples or the plastic.
The Analysis
This post was published on November 8, 2016