Fireball in Texas Sky, Its Origin Unknown

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/us/17debris.html

by EGF • 17 years ago

3 1 17 years ago

sam_in_nyc• 17 years ago

Several years ago, I had the privilege to witness a fireball that lasted nearly 15 seconds from start to finish. I've never again experienced anything as intense as this, which includes skydiving.

I spotted a tiny white moving dot in the sky. At first, it looked like a satellite in orbit, only it strangely grew in intensity, until appearing to be an airplane. 5 seconds in, it began to flicker, grew brighter, and grabbed the attention of other onlookers. From there, small fragments began coming off as it increased in brightness and become more of a white-orange color. The fragmenting pieces themselves also followed suite, breaking off into more white-orange pieces and leaving glittering trails. The main object then became quite massive, maybe about half the size of a full moon, with equal to or greater brightness then a full moon. The ground lit up. The main object was constantly disintegrating as pieces were breaking off and lagging back into the trail, breaking off into even more glittering pieces, and producing more light. Still, the main object only grew in intensity and become more distinctly orange. I can't be sure, because at this point it was burning spots into my eyes, which were adjusted for low light, but I believe there was even a trail of smoke. At this point I remember thinking "holy crap, it's going to impact way over there!" but instead, it dimmed a bit, and flew past the horizon. Suddenly, it was like the whole thing had never happened. Surprisingly, there was no sound from it.

On a related note, did anyone catch the Leonids several years back? That was also quite amazing.

Fireball in Texas Sky, Its Origin Unknown

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