2001-05-04 - Mountain View, CA - Fireball

Luminous white/green ball of light with tail over San Francisco Bay Area going N-S at 22:48 PST May 4 ,01

Object was seen at about 30 degrees above horizon going North to South at a descending slope of about 10 degrees. Trajectory absolutely rectilinear. Altitude estimated to about 5000-10000 ft, 2 to 4 miles away. Speed compatible with, or possibly faster than a jet fighter, certainly much faster than an air liner, but much slower than a meteorite. The object disappeared behind the trees. Witnesses were facing West, directly perpendicular to the object trajectory. Trajectory was between Moffet Field AirBase (in the back of the witnessess, in the East) and Stanford University and had to cross the 101 freeway. The area is densely populated with residential and business. Sky was clear with moon light. Moon was in the South East, to the left and in the back of the witnesses. Object appeared as self luminous, quite bright, size about 1/5 to 1/4 of moon, difficult to assess because of glow surrounding it and luminous trail (?) about 3 to 4 times the size of the object itself. Colors were mostly light green, white and some orange red in the trail. There was no obvious sound heard, however the witnesses were at an outside music concert at the time and may not have been able to hear it if there was one. My wife an I both saw it and pointed it out to another gentleman next to us. Local police was contacted, but did not have any report of this event.