2009-08-29 - Towanda, KS - Fireball

White fireball looked like meteor but then changed directions.

I was alone, traveling southwest on I-35, about 15 minutes northeast of Wichita. This was probably around mile marker 65 on I-35, but at the time I didn’t think to check my exact location.

Around 8:40 pm, a light was visible out the front window of my car, but toward the right side. I’d estimate it was approximately 30 degrees right of straight ahead. This means it was probably approximately straight west of my location.

The sky was dark. I saw a white fireball descending diagonally as it moved from right to left. It looked to me like what I would expect a meteor to look like, and initially it moved in a straight line. It produced a white light and had a tail of “sparks” behind it as it moved, like a comet. It looked something like certain kinds of fireworks I have seen that carry a flare and trail sparks behind. From time to time, it appeared that a burning chunk would break off and fall behind into the tail because the main light would flare up a! little bit and a brighter portion would then be visible moving into the tail portion.

So far, it appeared to me to be a meteor. However, after it descended traveling from right to left, it leveled off and proceeded to the left while climbing again. Once it had climbed again, it appeared to stop in the air for a while before moving down and to the right. It moved around several times, remaining visible for what was probably 2-3 minutes.

Finally it rose up, stopped trailing its tail, and became small and indistinguishable from a star in both size and color. It was then obscured by some trees I drove past and I wasn’t able to determine if it was still there after that.

I didn’t see it move again.