2010-09-20 - Ventura, CA - Changing

huge comet like object with fireball trail, turned white, stopped, became incircled by swirling white tails, then disappeared.

I am a Criminal Investigator and have worked in the Criminal Justice field for 25 years. I have vast experience in making observations and interpreting them.

On September 20, 2010, at about 9:15 pm; I was in my backyard letting the dogs go before bed. I looked up in the North East direction in the sky and observed a large object moving very slowly in the sky, towards my direction. The object was traveling low in the sky and appeared to have a large fireball tail trailing it. I could see aircraft in other parts of the sky at this time, and the object appeared to be lower than some of the aircraft that I observed.

I called my fiancé to come and look at this object because it was like nothing I have ever seen. It was huge, the size of a comet; which was my first guess as to what it was. As we continued to watch this object getting closer, the flaming tail turned white and then began swirling around the object. The object then came to a complete stop, as the white trails continued to swirl around it. The object itself appeared round and glowed brightly, like a star. It then simply disappeared right in front of our eyes.

The nature of my job makes me a skeptic of sorts. I have heard of many UFO sightings for which there have been logical explanations. However, I cannot think of anything that occurs in nature or that is manmade; that would perform the way that this object did in the sky that night.