Fiery debris streaks across Texas not from satellite collision

William Atkins
Monday, 16 February 2009 21:42

Science - Space

SpaceWeather.com made the statement that the object was a meteor. It stated that an “extremely-bright meteor descended at 11 am CST on Feb. 15th….”

It went on to say, “What you just saw was not satellite debris. The high speed of the fireball in the News 8 video is typical of a natural meteoroid hitting Earth's atmosphere at tens of km/s [kilometers per second].” [SpaceWeather.com]

And, “Orbital debris, on the other hand, should crawl across the sky at a fraction of that speed. Astronomer Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office has analyzed the video and confirms "it's a natural meteor, definitely." According to Cooke's analysis, the source of the fireball was a meter-class asteroid traveling at about 20 km/s.” [SpaceWeather.com]

Whenever seeing meteors streaking across your local sky—or for that matter any unidentified objects such as falling debris from space junk—do not touch them if they land close to you.

Go to the Goddard Space Flight Center’s website “What is Space Trash?”, for more information.

Hazardous materials are sometimes used to manufacture satellites and their power systems, and may pose a health and safety threat to anyone close to them on the ground.

Instead, contact local law enforcement officials so military officials and/or scientists can be called to collect and analyze the debris.

For more addition on meteors, please go to the American Meteor Society’s website “Fireball and Meteorite Dropping Fireballs.”