# Seen any fireballs fall from the sky lately? I have. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 15, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999 "2009-02-15T22:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/1 "2009-02-15T22:02:36Z")
About 11:00AM this morning while walking my dog in the Austin area I saw a fireball with a long flaming tail shoot through the sky and come down somewhere around Georgetown. For a moment I thought I was in a Michael Bay movie, but it turns out others saw it as well. While officials at first thought it was a crashing plane, the current theory is that it is debris from the satellite crash that happened a couple of days ago: [Reports of falling debris investigated](http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/austin/entries/2009/02/15/reports_of_falling_debris_inve.html) How wild is that? Certainly the oddest thing I have ever seen in the sky. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/2 "2009-02-16T00:46:34Z")
Cool! I’ve seen some falling stars, er, meteors, in Augusts past, but nothing that spectacular. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/3 "2009-02-16T00:59:11Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > …the current theory is that it is debris from the satellite crash that happened a couple of days ago. [Phil Plait](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/15/texas-fireball-whats-known-so-far/) the Bad Astronomer (and ex-Doper) says that’s unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/4 "2009-02-16T09:16:15Z")
I see a meteor at least once a month. I never get tired of seeing one. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/5 "2009-02-16T13:47:12Z")
I hope more video and stills will be forthcoming. That was a pretty impressive entry. I happened to be facing the right direction sitting around a campfire outside Burnet (also near Austin) late last year to witness the brightest and longest lasting meteor of my life. I kinda doubt I’ll ever see another as spectacular. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/6 "2009-02-16T15:32:10Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > [Phil Plait](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/15/texas-fireball-whats-known-so-far/) the Bad Astronomer (and ex-Doper) says that’s unlikely. I would tend to agree with his assessment. It seems unlikely that a satellite would have sufficient mass to survive the reentry and create a visible fireball impacting the earth. This thing was visible from Austin to Dallas in broad daylight so it must have been fairly large. Here is a link to a video from [News 8 Austin](http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=232081). My first instinct when seeing the flaming streak was that it was a meteorite. The news sources and unnamed officials are pushing other explanations. Is there some reason why this could not have been a meteorite? ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/7 "2009-02-16T15:52:20Z")
> [@Mudshark](#): > > I see a meteor at least once a month. I never get tired of seeing one. I have certainly seen my share of “shooting stars” in the night skies. What made this event unique was that it happened during daylight, was quite visibly a flaming mass, and it HIT THE GROUND. If you see that on a monthly basis you are lucky indeed. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/8 "2009-02-16T16:56:54Z")
> [@Mudshark](#): > > I see a meteor at least once a month. I never get tired of seeing one. About a month ago I was walking the dog and saw a meteor… waited to see if there would be any more, and about ten seconds later, saw another with the exact same trajectory. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-any-fireballs-fall-from-the-sky-lately-i-have/485999/9 "2009-02-16T19:16:46Z")
Finally an update! It looks like they are starting to think it was a meteorite after all. > [@](#): > > 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. From the [News 8 website](http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=232157).