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It’s Raining Fireballs (or Space Junk?) on Texas
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“Every color of the rainbow has been reported with orange and yellow being most mentioned … may be the re-entry of a Chinese rocket“
AMSMeteors.org
- When: February 27, 2013, 3AM
- Where: Southeast Texas and western Louisiana
- What: Multiple fireballs, meteor fragments seen for miles
The American Meteor Society received a boat load of meteor (or rocket debris) reports this morning, most from the southeast/Houston, Texas area (as well as some of western Louisiana). But it wasn’t just the AMS abuzz with speculation – forums like GodLikeProductions.com, Here are some of the better descriptions, which all seem to tell the same story: multiple fireballs zooming through the sky, possibly without sound (which is curious), and in formation until splitting up into fragments.
I counted eight meteor looking small fireballs streaking in formation right to left from a 123 degree angle, for about 2 minutes. 3 of the meteors or comets exploded the other eight kept a perfect formation. I never witnessed such a moment at 3am central time 2/27/13 I was jogging in Sweeny, Tx on 1108 early st. 77480, looking from north to south, they appeared from a southerly direction and lasted about 2 min. heading and dissapearing in a northerly direction. – Lester D. of Sweeny, TX
I have studied the heavens since I was approximately 8 years old …at first I thought it was a group of military transport planes in formation. Then I thought it was space junk however, it was moving at a high rate of speed. There were several trucks on the road at the time of the appearance so I’m certain someone else saw what I saw. – Dennis L. of Kirvin, TX
Between 12-20 fireballs, packed in a group, with glowing tails on each. Traveling around the same speed as a low flying jet. No sound, only sight. Mike C. of Prairieville, LA
I think this was the reentry of rocket body CZ-4B. – William B. of Houston, TX
I am an airline pilot and was at 38000 feet enroute from bogota Columbia to Houston tx during the event … An illuminated smoke trail glowing in the moonlight. – Karl K
I suspect that this fireball was the re-entry of the Chinese CZ-4B rocket that launched Yaogan 14 on May 10 last year. This has a NORAD catalog ID of 38259 and an international designation of 2012-021C. The latest TIP message on Spacetrack (issued at 12:16 UTC) suggests that this decayed just after crossing the equator northbound near 3degN
88.6degW on February 27 at 09:06 UTC (03:06 CST).If it survived a little longer in orbit, then the following ground-track
should represent its motion northwards in the vicinity of Galveston:UTC Latitude(degN) Longitude (degW)
09:08 24.7 92.8
09:09 28.8 93.7
09:10 32.9 94.6
09:11 37.0 95.6
09:12 41.1 96.8Regards,
Alan Pickup
Even more witness reports can be read at lunameteoritehunters.blogspot.com.
Could this be related to recent Houston UFO flap or meteor outbreak all over the world?
