1998-12-16 - Demotte, IN - Teardrop

Green round glowing fireball with short glowing tail, fell slowly from below cloud cover to very near ground level, viewed at distance.

I am 40 years old, have been driving for a living most of my life. Novice amateur astronomer. Have seen few very strange things in the sky but always keep an eye out. Driving north on Indiana Highway 10 into Demotte, Indiana, stopped at a stopsign, I observed a glowing green teardrop-shaped "meteor" or "fireball" for approximately five seconds. Light snow had fallen a few hours earlier and the sky was still mostly cloudy. The glowing object appeared below the cloud layer a degree or two west of north and, falling at approximately 30-40 degrees from vertical towards the west, fell slowly for about 5 seconds and disappeared in place, not fully obscured at any time. There is a line of telephone poles 10'-12' to my left. Three strands of tinsel are strung tightly between the poles with, perhaps, a 2"-3" sag at the center. Three strands of tinsel approx 18" apart from each other, the highest strand at about 13' from the ground and horizontal. The object fell below the level of the highest strand and disappeared before it's short tail was bisected lengthwise by the middle strand, from my perspective at about 4 feet off the level ground (in my car). The complete length of the object, from the perspective, was about a third the distance between the strands of tinsel. I expected the object to hit the ground; it did not. It did not change direction, velocity, intensity color, shape or size. The core glowed more brightly than the glowing "aura" and tail. There was no trail. The color was like the green of a night vision scope.