2009-02-15 - Kannapolis, NC - Fireball

large white flame in the Southern Sky

I just wanted to let you know first. I have just witnessed an object falling into the atmosphere at 5:08 am this morning(2/15//09).

I stepped outside to have a cigarrette, and noticed a glow travelling due south about 45 degrees above the horizon. it proceeded to fall glowing a bright silver color, with no other color at an unusually slow rate. After about 1.5 seconds it began to dim and then the intense glow faded to see a remnant travelling for another .5-.7 seconds towards the treeline behind the water tower.

The trajectory appeared to be heading into the East side over Charlotte, and from my astonomy background appeared unusual because of the relative speed and color. I seemed about 1/2 the speed of most meteor oblects and the duration of visibility after burning also lasted for a longer period. The color was an intense white light that would be a magnitude 5 times brighter than Jupiter ( which is visible just after sunset in the East currently around 7 pm).

This could have been a very large meteor that did not burn completely, and the remains may have reached Earth East to South East of Charlotte. This however appeared to be at a slower speed, possibly close to a speed of a visible manmade satellite. [There has been recent news coverage of a 2 satellite collision last week (maybe around Tuesday-Wednseday). Also there has been coverage of close range asteroids that were found last Autumn, and several large objects that entered the atmoshere last October-November 2008. Also, I saw one of these on 10/31/08 at 2:58 am and the color was yellow amber with a fater speed and longer visible duration which appeared to break into several pieces].

What I saw this morning was different than normal in speed and color from previous experiences with meteor phenomenon, and may be part of recent satellite activity. What I thought was most interesting was that it occured in Charlotte airspace, and could have been spotted on radar.