HOUSTON — The fireball that streaked across the Texas sky and appeared to dive toward earth over the weekend remained a mystery on Monday after the military said the event had nothing to do with a collision of satellites last week and did not seem to involve an artificial satellite coming down.
“We still think it’s possible it might be a natural phenomenon, a meteor or asteroid,” said Maj. Regina Winchester, a spokeswoman for the United States Strategic Command, in Nebraska.
Whatever it was, the fireball on Sunday caused great consternation and wonder across Central Texas. Dozens of people called the police to report sonic booms and a bright fireball plunging toward the ground around 11 a.m.
In Williamson County, north of Austin, so many callers were convinced that the plummeting light was a burning aircraft that the sheriff’s office dispatched a helicopter and several patrol cars to look for debris.
“No one said they saw it crash,” said a spokesman, Detective John Foster. “But it looked like it was going down; it was approaching the earth.”
Lisa Block, a spokeswoman for the Texas State Police, said troopers were flooded with calls around the same time from McLennan County, which includes Waco, and Kaufman County, southeast of Dallas.
The Federal Aviation Administration has determined only that the object was not an aircraft.
Byron D. Tapley, the director of the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas, Austin, said it was highly unlikely that the object came from the collision of a Russian satellite and an American communications company satellite over Siberia last Tuesday. Dr. Tapley said the belt of debris, some 500 miles above Earth, was too high for pieces to come down this soon.
A more likely cause, Dr. Tapley said, would be a large meteor burning up as it entered the atmosphere. Another possibility would be a defunct satellite tumbling out of space and eluding the Air Force’s detection system.
Whether artificial or not, he said, the object was bigger than an ordinary shooting star. Smaller meteors cannot be seen during the day, and they do not have such a long tail.
One astronomer at the University of North Texas, Ron Dilulio, told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the object had to be the size of a pickup truck to remain visible, as it did, for several seconds.
Some witnesses compared the fireball’s brightness to the sun. Others swore it was a plane on fire. The ball of light flared up at least twice on its descent, which lasted five to seven seconds, according to an amateur video posted on the Internet.
“I saw a ball of fire with a fire streaming out of the back of it — I thought it was a plane crashing at first,” said Doug Schmidt, an engineer from Richardson, a suburb north of Dallas. “Just before it disappeared, I saw a little flash of light.”
“We still think it’s possible it might be a natural phenomenon, a meteor or asteroid,” said Maj. Regina Winchester, a spokeswoman for the United States Strategic Command, in Nebraska.
Whatever it was, the fireball on Sunday caused great consternation and wonder across Central Texas. Dozens of people called the police to report sonic booms and a bright fireball plunging toward the ground around 11 a.m.
In Williamson County, north of Austin, so many callers were convinced that the plummeting light was a burning aircraft that the sheriff’s office dispatched a helicopter and several patrol cars to look for debris.
“No one said they saw it crash,” said a spokesman, Detective John Foster. “But it looked like it was going down; it was approaching the earth.”
Lisa Block, a spokeswoman for the Texas State Police, said troopers were flooded with calls around the same time from McLennan County, which includes Waco, and Kaufman County, southeast of Dallas.
The Federal Aviation Administration has determined only that the object was not an aircraft.
Byron D. Tapley, the director of the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas, Austin, said it was highly unlikely that the object came from the collision of a Russian satellite and an American communications company satellite over Siberia last Tuesday. Dr. Tapley said the belt of debris, some 500 miles above Earth, was too high for pieces to come down this soon.
A more likely cause, Dr. Tapley said, would be a large meteor burning up as it entered the atmosphere. Another possibility would be a defunct satellite tumbling out of space and eluding the Air Force’s detection system.
Whether artificial or not, he said, the object was bigger than an ordinary shooting star. Smaller meteors cannot be seen during the day, and they do not have such a long tail.
One astronomer at the University of North Texas, Ron Dilulio, told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the object had to be the size of a pickup truck to remain visible, as it did, for several seconds.
Some witnesses compared the fireball’s brightness to the sun. Others swore it was a plane on fire. The ball of light flared up at least twice on its descent, which lasted five to seven seconds, according to an amateur video posted on the Internet.
“I saw a ball of fire with a fire streaming out of the back of it — I thought it was a plane crashing at first,” said Doug Schmidt, an engineer from Richardson, a suburb north of Dallas. “Just before it disappeared, I saw a little flash of light.”
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