Posted by
AJH on Sunday, February 15, 2009 5:43:00 AM
Midmorning Sunday several people in Texas reported “a fireball in the sky.” Numerous reports of falling debris with at least one fireball and an accompanying explosion — probably a sonic boom — possibly from the recent collision of American and Russian satellites (Iridium-Cosmos), were submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Airline pilots were warned previously, on Saturday, via a NOTAM, although the source of the debris has not been confirmed and the warning did not mention the satellite incident. Some of the objects appear to have landed in Williamson County, where local authorities were tracking and searching using a helicopter without success. It could have been a large meteor burning up in the atmosphere.
Roland Herwig, a spokesman for the FAA's Southwest Region, spoke with reporters on Sunday. He said there was no immediate “evidence of damage, no evidence of injuries, no evidence of anyone yet finding a chunk of satellite.”
Until someone actually recovers debris, he noted, it may be impossible to tell whether the sightings involved wreckage from the Iridium-Cosmos crash, some other satellite or debris from a meteor. The Limestone County sheriff's office reported on someone who claimed to have a picture of the fireball and a smoke trail and a Plano, Texas, police cruiser may have capture images from a dashboard camera.
The Associated Press reported that the “chief of Russia's Mission Control says clouds of debris from the collision will circle Earth and threaten numerous satellites” in the coming days. How long this may last is unknown.
AJH