Watch out for falling debris

[toverman]

Was stopped at a stoplight near my house mid-morning Sunday and saw something on fire falling from the sky. Didn't appear to be an aircraft ... it was there and then gone quickly. I looked at the guy in the car next to me, but he didn't see it.

Came across this article, which says other people were making reports of similar sightings. Either I'm as crazy as all the other people or I actually saw it!

[jennyh453]

Guess that makes me crazy too. I saw one and almost rear ended the car in front of me looking for more, because I wasn't sure I saw what I saw!

[Concisus Cognatus]

May have been delayed debris from the us and russian satelite collision.

[dbphotos]

They showed several videos of it on tonight's news. It really happened and was some space debris, they just aren't willing to say for sure it was part of 2 satellites recently destroyed.

[Imagebuffet]

BBC video:

BBC: Mystery fireball captured on film

I saw something like that a few years ago, but it was green and fell from much higher in the sky, about 30° or 40° up, directly in front of me as I drove on 181 from Frisco to Walmart in Plano.

[JPalmer]

it was a natural meteor.. not satellite debris. Orbital debris would fall much slower through the sky.

Must have been a big chunk of rock to be bright enough to be seen during the day though.

[Shelby Lane]

I saw this on the news last night and wondered if any TPFers had actually seen it. I talked to a friend of mine in Frisco this morning and she said that at first she thought it was a plane crashing.

[gmarblestone]

I was in Lockhart Texas and my brother in law and i both saw it.
It was pretty cool.

G

[ggeen]

UFOs? Repeat after me "Klaatu barada nikto."

A local station, Fox4, picked up the story here in Dallas. The debris caused some fires. Current specutation it is from the two satellites that collided.

[Cajungaltx]

But wait - those two satellites colliding was just a coincidence, none of the falling stuff could possibly be from THAT.

[Truckman]

If it turns out to be anti-social aliens, I'll find out if they're bulletproof and get back to you......Ben

[andyz]

Here is part of the story from KWTX Ch 10. (Waco)

WACO (February 16, 2009)--The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday the fireball that streaked across the Central Texas sky Sunday, producing a series of window-rattling sonic booms, was a natural phenomenon and not debris from two satellites that collided in orbit last week.

A North Texas astronomer said more specifically that it was probably a pickup truck-sized meteor with the consistency of concrete.

The FAA backed off its weekend claim that the fireball was caused by falling debris from colliding satellites plummeting into earth's atmosphere.

Earlier Monday, the U.S. Strategic Command said that the source of the fireballs and sonic booms wasn’t debris from the satellites.

The FAA notified pilots on Saturday to be aware of possible space debris after the collision Tuesday between U.S. and Russian satellites.

The FAA posted a notice to pilots on Saturday that “until further notice…a potential hazard may occur due to the reentry of satellite debris into the Earth’s atmosphere.”

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Now, isn't it great that commercial pilots need to watch Star Wars to learn about dodging a meteor shower while in flight?