Posted on 09/12/2006 5:39:44 AM PDT by sonsofliberty2000
SEATTLE – Around 7:30 p.m. Monday, KING 5 News' phones started to ring as viewers reported seeing a ball of flames shooting across the skies of Western Washington.
The calls came in mostly from Pierce and Kitsap counties.
Michael Witig and his wife were out barbecuing when they saw something streaking through the sky. They kept rolling as the fiery tail grew behind the mystery object.
KING 5 News contacted the Air Force, FAA, National Weather Service and other local authorities, but could not immediately find an explanation for what streaked across the sky and what was caught on tape.
I think that global warming is responsible for this.
Relax... That fiery trail and loud explosion was just another "successful" North Korean missile test, right?!?
Kim Jong Il's first missile to reach the US mainland..........
Extraterrestrial objects that hit the ground, their speed roughly half what it was upon entry, blast out craters 12 to 20 times their size. Craters on Earth form much as they would on the moon or any rocky planet. Smaller objects create simple, bowl-shaped craters. Larger impacts cause a rebound that creates a central peak; slipping along the rim forms terraces. The largest impacts form basins in which multiple rebounds form several inner peaks.
History
In ancient times, objects in the night sky conjured superstition and were associated with gods and religion. But misunderstandings about meteors lasted longer than they did about most other celestial objects.
Meteorites (the pieces that make it to Earth) were long ago thought to be cast down as gifts from angels. Others thought the gods were displaying their anger. As late as the 17th century, many believed they fell from thunderstorms (they were nicknamed "thunderstones"). Many scientists were skeptical that stones could fall from the clouds or the heavens, and often they simply didn't believe the accounts of people who claimed to have seen such things.
In 1807, a fireball exploded over Connecticut, and several meteorites rained down. By then the first handful of asteroids had been discovered, and a new theory emerged suggesting meteorites were broken bits off asteroids or other planets. (A theory that still holds.)
One of the most significant meteorite events in recent history destroyed hundreds of square miles of forest in Siberia on June 30, 1908. Across hundreds of miles, witnesses of the Tunguska event saw a ball of fire streak through the sky, suggesting the meteor entered the atmosphere at an oblique angle. It exploded, sending out hot winds and loud noises and shook the ground enough to break windows in nearby villages. Small particles blown into the atmosphere lit the night sky for several days. No meteorite was ever found, and for years many scientists thought the devastation was caused by a comet. Now, the prevailing theory holds that a meteor exploded just above the surface.
The largest meteorite recovered in the United States fell in a wheat field in southern Nebraska in 1948. Witnesses saw a giant fireball in the afternoon that some said was brighter than the sun. The meteorite was found buried 10 feet deep in the ground. It weighed 2,360 pounds.
The most famous meteorite crater in the United States is misnamed Meteor Crater. It's in Arizona, and it's huge. The rim rises 150 feet from the surrounding plain, and the hole is 600 feet deep and nearly a mile wide. It was the first crater that was proved to be caused by a meteorite impact, which occurred between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago.
Meteor showers
When a comet nears the sun, a trail of dust and other debris burns off and remains in solar orbit. As Earth orbits the sun, it passes through this debris field spread across its path. Small bits burn up in the atmosphere, creating meteors. Meteors come from other sources, too, but comet debris streams are the source of sometimes dramatic meteor showers.
Bingo. We have a winner. The news media sre now reporting that it was indeed a high-flying aircraft leaving a contrail and was at just the right angle to look like a flaming object leaving a trail of smoke. Mystery solved.
Good call, but alas, very boring.
Hopefully this is all a coverup and it was an extraterrestrial spacecraft.
Agreed! :-p
"... Aurora was being flown from a base in the Nevada desert to an atoll in the Pacific, then on to Scotland to refuel before returning to the US at night. Specially modified tanker aircraft are being used to top up Aurora's tanks with liquid methane fuel in mid-air... The US Air Force is using the remote RAF airbase at Machrihanish, Strathclyde, as a staging point... The mystery aircraft has been dropping in at night before streaking back to America across the North Pole at more than six times the speed of sound... An F-111 fighter bomber is scrambling as the black-painted aircraft lands, flying in close formation to confuse prying civilian radars."
"The sleek aircraft would cruise at Mach 5 (3,350 mph) speed at a maximum altitude of about 100,000 feet. The aircraft would be made primarily of titanium with its outer edges constructed of Inconel, a heat-resistant stainless steel. At Mach 5 speed the leading edges of the air-frame would glow red above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. "
I don't think I'd want to fly in a plane that glows red-hot.
How do you account for the change in direction?
Saw one in 1963 at 5:00 in the morning over Wilkes-Barre PA. Was delivering my papers and heard a rushing noise looked up and HOLY COW !!
12th Imam ?
It happened very close to sunset (around 7:30 PM, sunset was 7:28). However a high flying aircraft would probably still have direct exposure to sunlight. The contrail looks very red. Furthermore the video appears to show the brightest and and most flame-like part only very near the head of the smoke trail, contrail or whatever it is. The contrail also only seems to appear right about the time of what appears to have been a sharp turn.
I'm not sure this really is a sunset enhanced contrail. Now donning tinfoil for flame protection...
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