Texas Meteor Fireball Sighting
Hundreds of Reports come from all around Dallas Fort Worth, Austin, and Waco Texas about a fireball seen on Feb 15th at around 11am. Here’s some another video, and eyewitness reports compiled from all over the web.
If anyone has any information about this meteor please contact us immediately.
REPORT AUSTIN TEXAS FIREBALL HERE: Report Fireball or Debris Impact!
Anyone in the area around Waco, Dallas, Austin, Denton County, Cedar Park, Glen Rose, Plano, Hearne, Denton, Bryan, or San Angelo, is encouraged to call or write us regarding this event. Report Fireball or Debris Impact!
More Info Compiled From Around The Web:
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http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=232081
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Officials say mystery fireball in sky was meteor
Updated: 2/16/2009 6:04 PM
By: News 8 Austin Staff
A few days ago, an American satellite and a Russian satellite collided 500 miles above the earth.
A fireball that blazed across the Texas sky and sparked numerous weekend calls to law enforcement
agencies now can be considered an identified flying object.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday the fireball was a natural phenomenon, not flying
space junk, and a North Texas astronomer said more specifically that it was probably a pickup
truck-sized meteor with the consistency of concrete.
The object was visible Sunday morning from Austin to Dallas and into East Texas. In Central Texas, the
Williamson County sheriff’s office received so many emergency calls that it sent a helicopter aloft to
look for debris from a plane crash.
The FAA backed off its weekend claim that the fireball was caused by falling debris from colliding
satellites plummeting into earth’s atmosphere.
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http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/feb/17/dallas-firey-ufo-officially-identified-natural-occ/
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Dallas’ firey UFO is officially identified as a natural occurrence
BY PEGASUS NEWS WIRE
Email Print Tell us your story Comment
Sunday’s fireball that fell to the ground has been confirmed by the FAA as a natural phenomenon. It
was probably a big meteor. Does your wish still come true if your falling star falls to earth?
Posted by Laura S.
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http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/15/fireball-over-texas/
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Comments reporting this event…
I’m getting reports that an extremely bright fireball was seen in broad daylight over Texas (near San
Antonio and Austin) around 11:00 a.m. local time (about an hour ago as I write this). [Update: some
fireball reports came in from Kentucky on Friday, but it’s unclear if the KY event is connected, since
it was a while back. It’s possible, so I remain agnostic for now.] If you saw anything or find links,
please put them in the comments. The more reports we get on this, the more likely astronomers can
figure out what this was.
Here’s part of an email I just received:
According to Google Earth, I was approximately at 29 deg 53′14.44″ N and 97 deg 57′32.00″ W when
we saw the object. We were traveling NE, and the object was a little further NE of us, and was
travelling in a NNE direction. It traveled out of sight quickly, and we were unable to figure out
where it went from there.
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# David Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I saw the fireball at 11am this morning. I was just south of the Arboretum in Austin travelling NE on
360 at the north bull creek park. actual address is: 7854 Capital of TX Hwy, Austin, TX, United
States, don’t know gps coords. The object was nearly due north travelling quickly on an east to west
trajectory. It was maybe 30deg from the horizon and was coming down at something like 20deg angle.
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# BrianVanicek Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
My son and I saw the fireball at 10:58 a.m. this morning, February 15, while travelling NW on FM 485
on the Bell/Milam County line in Central Texas. The object streaked from the NE in a NNE trajectory as
noted by the previous poster, flared and was gone. What appeared to be a short vapor trail became
immediately visible. A puffy remant of the trail remained faintly visible ten minutes later when we
arrived home mid-way between Seaton and Zabcikville on State Highway 53. Will be watching your
blogsite for additional details and/or reports of this siting.
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# Nick Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I saw one around 11 am from central austin to the north
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# cindy Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I saw the fireball perfectly outside of my living room window. Now there is a fire near where the
fireball would have touched ground which may be between 5 and 20 miles north of us.
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# Sporkley Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
My wife and I spotted this event as we were driving south down a suburban street in north Dallas /
Richardson TX (32.962136,-96.682777). It was approximately 10:58am CST and lasted under 5 seconds (way
too fast for me to get a picture!) It was in the southern sky, slightly west, and falling east to
west. It appeared as a streak, then brightened into a distinct orange fireball before vanishing. I am
not an astronomer or aviator so I can’t reliably estimate the elevation above the horizon, but I hope
this information helps some.
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# DeAnne Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I’m in North (eastern side) Texas. I was outside, about 10:30 am, looking to the southwest when I saw
the giant fireball of spacey doom. From my perspective, it appeared to be streaking north and down,
and it appeared that it flamed out before it disappeared behind the houses (about a mile from me) that
blocked my view of the object.
I didn’t hear a boom, nor have any sirens gone off around here, so I’m sure it didn’t land here, but
it was an object that was brightly visible in the sunny sky. It was a big ol flame ball.
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# april Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
We were on our way to church this morning, (we live in south austin)
and I saw the fire ball shooting down toward the earth and yelled at my husband to look.
We both thought it was a plane crashing..I was like oh my goodness!! oh my goodness!!
the tail of the fire ball looked bright silver, I kept commenting to my husband on how strange that
was..
we were both freaked out after we saw that.
just wanted to weigh in!
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# RZ Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
My daughter and her friend saw the 11:00 AM fall. We are in Wylie, TX (NE of Dallas). It was in the
SSW – SW. She said it was very bright with fire behind it. Started about 70deg and down to about
40deg(interpited from her story and pointing).
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# @matt_stiles Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I was actually facing northwest. Here’s the angle from Google Earth: http://twitpic.com/1icr7
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# Don Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I am at 32deg 46′24.84N 96deg64′35.07W observed it falling south to southwest of my location.
Just happen to be answering the front door.
Brite white as would be burning magnesium with a redish core.
No sound. Left a broken contrail that formed well after it had passed.
The two gents I was talking to turned to look but it had already gone.
They did also observe the contrail.
Don
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#########################DEBRIS SEEN FALLING######################
# Barbara Holliday Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
My husband and I saw the fireball at 10:58 a.m. It was not flashes of light but a round ball of fire
the size of the moon. It was reds and yellow, all the colors of boiling rolling fire. Suddenly it went
bright white and exploded. We saw large pieces of black debris fall toward Georgetown or north of
there. You could see the cloud of smoke in the sky for a long time. We were traveling on FM 1431 3
miles from IH 35 where IH35 is between Round Rock and Georgetown.
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# Mary Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I saw it at 10:58 this morning at 33 deg 6′6.3″ N and 96 deg 40′59.7″W (about 3 suburbs north of
Dallas). The fireball was south and slightly west in the sky and came down at maybe a little sharper
than a 45 degree angle. As best I could tell, it suddenly appeared somewhere in the atmosphere as a
big bright solid fire-colored fireball, and then I lost sight of it behind some trees, light posts,
etc. I was sitting outside with about 4 other folks, but no one else saw it, and there was no smoke
observable afterwards.
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# Jesso Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I saw it this morning as I was facing south at the corner of Lamar & Cooper in Arlington, Texas. It
looked like it was dead ahead of me when it first appeared and it was very bright.
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# Dr Matt Fields Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
We’ve heard from folks who saw it from the south and folks who saw it from the north. We’ve heard from
folks who saw it at 10:58 and folks who saw it at 11:15.
The north and south perspectives should help box in the actual trajectory. The 11:15 time seems like a
mistaken outlier or possibly a different event.
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# Mike Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I was travelling North on I-35 out of Austin this morning and saw the fireball. It was around 11:00
AM. It appeared on my right and travelled to my left as it desended.
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# Jacque Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I saw it in Dallas at 10:58 am. I was facing south. It appeared in the southwest and was going down
fast. Very bright and shining, burning.
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# Julian Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Saw it at 11:00 am driving north on I-45 about 2 miles south of Madisonville, TX. It was SW of my
position and it was huge! Glad it wasn’t an hallucination
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# Dan Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
At around 8pm Eastern Time (give or take a few minutes), I saw a fast-moving orange object with a long
tail streak across the sky from northern Maryland (N39 degrees 24 min, W 76 degrees 45 min). I was
facing west, and the object was heading west. It disappeared after less than half of a second. It
looked similar to the object in the video from Austin but didn’t stay visible for nearly as long, and
was higher in the sky. I didn’t notice any smoke or debris on its tail, but it’s darker here so I
might just not have noticed. I thought it was an especially close meteor at the time. I read about the
fireball over Texas just a few minutes later after coming back inside.
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# J.D. Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I was at our local airport (52F) traveling south on the taxi way at 11AM and saw it traveling from
east to west due south of my location. It looked as if it was within a few hundred feet of me.
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# Misty Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I was driving East on Hwy 67 from San Angelo, TX. I was about 10 miles west of Santa Anna, Tx at 11:56
a.m. today and saw what looked like a “meteor” going across the sky from south to north at an amazing
speed. I thought if it doesn’t stop at the rate it is going, it is going to impact in about 2 more
seconds. It burnt up and left a cloud-like streak that lasted about 30 minutes. It was the craziest
thing I have ever seen. It looked like a orange fireball with a bright white tail.
# Misty Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I’m sorry, I meant 10:56 a.m…not 11:56!!!
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#################### ***HEARD SWISHING SOUND*** ############################
# Jim Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I live in rural Milam county midway between Bryan and Waco. My wife and I were working in the garden
this morning. I heard a swishing sound that caused me to look to the sky, I saw a fire ball with a
tail, moving from east to west at about a 30 degree angle towards the earth. I told my wife to look,
she saw it as well, it lasted about 3 seconds and appeared to burn out before it went out of sight.
After we logged the time as 10:58 a.m. we looked back to the sky and observed a smoke trail where the
object had passed.
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# emarkay Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Jim Oberg – Now here’s a person who knows his Space info!
I notifed the NWS this morning based on Satobs and other sources that the KY event could NOT have been
collision debris – Prob the M-66 booster re-entry.
This thing as videoed, is certainly NOT a satellite reentry! The observed intensity and speed for one
make this unlikely, but the angle of entry confirms that this could NOT have been an orbiting item!
Orbital mechanics would require a GIGANTIC force to dislodge something this visible out of an earth
orbit, and there’s no “Starship Enterprise” out there with a “Photon Torpedo” to do that!
It’s a bolide – a meteor, and they will eventually find a few chunks of it.
emarkay at email dot com
MRK
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# Cody Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Saw it this morning, was sitting at the intersection of Olympia Dr. & Windsor facing roughly south in
Denton, TX (for those that google map), it seemed to be directly centered in front of me, the streak
appeared and disappeared in about the center 1/3 of the sky visible through my windshield.
Seemed to be a little bigger than a vapor trail of a commercial airliner, at least from my vantage
point of 20 miles or so north of D/FW airport…
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****************** SATELLITE DEBRIS RULED OUT ********************
# Rob Matson Says:
February 16th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Summarizing (Hi Jim O., Alan & Dale!) for those following along, satellite debris of any flavor was
completely ruled out by both the velocity and entry angle as seen in the video taken in Austin. This
was your garden variety bolide, though bright enough that there is a decent possibility of meteorites
on the ground somewhere between Dallas and Austin. If I had to guess based on all the witness reports
I’ve read, I would favor slightly west of the N-S line passing through Waco rather than slightly east;
an observation from near Waco would be very helpful in triangulating the impact zone. –Rob
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# Mike Says:
February 16th, 2009 at 5:37 am
We saw it (without any doubt) at around 11:00 while driving north on Highway 6 in Hearne Texas. Hearne
is about 25 miles north of College Station which is the home of Texas A&M University.
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# Paul Herman Says:
February 16th, 2009 at 9:27 am
I saw it as well. I was driving south on Custer Road in Plano, TX, about a quarter mile north of
Hedgecoxe. I glanced at the clock in the car, it said 11:00AM. It came in in front of me, to the SSW,
at an angle flatter than 45 degrees, from the east, and as far as I remember, it started out as a
small light for a second, then blew out to a huge ball of fire. As in spherical, maybe a dime at
arms-length size. All flames (orange and yellow moving around colors). The big ball effect lasted
maybe a full second, maybe a second and a half, then it went back down to nothing and was gone, before
it went below the horizon. I could see rippling in the flames, color variation and movement, so I
thought it was close. Then I heard they filmed it in Austin. Maybe it came down around Waco.
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# Lisa Says:
February 16th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Sunday, Feb 15th, 11 AM, I was traveling north on I-45, I was 20 miles south of Centerville, TX at it
was almost exactly 11AM. I saw a flash very high in the sky, it left a smoke trail and then in front
of me above the tree line I saw a shiny, shiny bright object that to me was the shape of the wing of
an airplane and at the larger end, I saw a blindingly bright light, almost like a sparkler looks when
lit, like white and silver sparkles…..then just as quick, it was gone. It was LARGE, very large. I
thought it was an airplane crashing because of the shape but I never saw any smoke come up from the
ground. We were able to watch the smoke trail it left in the sky for about 10 minutes before it
dissipated.
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# SCOTT Says:
February 16th, 2009 at 5:49 am
MY WIFE AND I WERE LEAVING MY BROTHER IN LAWS HOME IN AUSTIN, TX SUNDAY @ 12:30, AND WHILE WE WERE
DRIVING ON 183 WE SAW A BALL OF FIRE WITH A LONG FIERY TAIL SHOOT ACROSS THE SKY AND FADE OUT. IT ONLY
LASTED ABOUT TWO SECONDS AND I AM SURPRISED WE WERE LOOKING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AT THE RIGHT TIME.
IT BASICALLY LOOKED LIKE A SHOOTING STAR BUT IT WAS DEFINITELY ORANGE FLAME COLORED.
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# Herb Veness Says:
February 16th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I saw this thing burn out over Killeen Texas just after lunch sometime. I was on ft hood road going
north and it shot right over me going the same direction. It was a fast moving, very bright ball of
flames with a tail of flames, it gave one short burst of more flames (that burst occured in the center
of the whole thing), then on final burst of much brighter flames (right at the head of the ball of
flames) when it burned out over the intersection of highway 190 and Jasper road. When it burned out it
left a small cloud in the sky for at least an hour. I was sure I was going to see it in the newspaper
the next day, but apparently I was the only one who saw that thing. I’m thinking meteor. Kinda scary
to know there won’t be any meteor warnings if one hits hard.
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# Marty Lewis Says:
February 16th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Location, Cedar Park TX. We were traveling Northeast on Cypress Creek Blvd nearing the intersection
with Lakeline Blvd, at latitude 30.4809, longitude -97.8325. I didn’t look at my watch but I know it
was between 10:55 – 11:00. Everyone in our car saw the bright streak across the sky from right to left
in the NW direction. It happened very fast, just a few seconds… At first I thought someone shot a
firework, but there was no noise.
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******************* COORDINATES ******************
# John Says:
February 17th, 2009 at 5:59 am
we saw the texas event just before 11 AM sunday, at 32.885254, -96.838463, to the SSE, moving roughly
from a bearing of about 195, elevation 30 degrees, to about a bearing of 200-205, elevation 25 degrees
or so, before becoming obscured by the tree line.
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http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topnews/story/Burning-debris-may-be-space-satellites-reports/BKrTc1
k8F06-WjLXP03XPw.cspx
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KEYE TV viewer Steve Thornton says, “I saw something burn up in the atmosphere going east to west at
40 degrees on the horizon looking north. There was no smoke trail. It was about the size of a half
moon and as bright as a welders torch.”
KEYETV.com reader Max Lyon witnessed the fireball and says it was “a bright glowing egg-shape with an
orange center and bluish outer aura; a silvery-white tail. The tail was intact for several seconds,
then became segmented. The single object became several objects during incineration. A white trail
remained visible for up to 10 minutes, slowly widening and distorting with the movement of upper level
wind currents.”
The FAA office in Austin says they are certain it was not an aircraft and there are reports as far as
the Fort Worth airspace being affected. According to the FAA more than likely it was debris falling
from the atmosphere. They also tell KEYE TV there are reports of fallen debris on the ground north of
the Austin area but that has not yet been confirmed. There were warnings from the FAA issued Saturday
about the possibility of debris falling from two satellites that crashed on Tuesday.
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http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/austin/entries/2009/02/15/reports_of_fa
lling_debris_inve.html
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The Waco Tribune-Herald newspaper reported on its web site Sunday afternoon that Randy Plemons, chief
deputy with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Department said a sheriff’s office pilot flew the county’s
helicopter searching for debris about 100 miles north of Austin but found nothing, despite reports
from Waco residents who saw the fireball and heard explosions.
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