2012-06-06 - Jackson Hole, WY - Fireball

Fireball seen with several pink lights surrounding it

On June 6th, 2012 at approximately 9:45pm, my daughter and I left my parents’ house, located five miles South of Jackson Hole, WY. We pulled off the road as we immediately noticed a fireball in the area of Teton Village, WY moving straight up into the sky at a fair rate of speed. At first, we thought it was something moving up the mountain but, realized it had traveled past the mountain, high into the night sky. It was not a completely dark night at the time. The fireball made a 90 degree turn and headed east. Suddenly, the light went out and we watched the object free fall. The object was much bigger than an airplane and it was falling freely, sort of wobbling about. It seemed to be between Teton Village and the town of Jackson. There were a few clouds in the sky and we watched it pass a couple of clouds until it got to a very dark cloud and we lost sight of it.

We headed on our way home, north on Highway 89. Suddenly, a fireball was coming towards us! It was large and not very high in the sky. In fact, it was not higher than the mountain we were driving next to. There were several other vehicles on the road that had to be witnessing what we were. As it passed over us, I could clearly see a fireball with a short trail of the fire behind it, lighting up the rear end of the object it was coming from. The object was round; saucer shaped. My daughter, being the passenger in the car and able to look longer than I; she saw several pink lights surrounding the fireball. Ten to twenty pink lights surrounded the fireball object.

We pulled off the highway and phoned my parents as we continued to watch. We had only gotten about 1 mile from my their home. By the time the fireball had gotten in the vicinity of their home the fireball was high in the sky and again, the fireball went out. We could not follow it any longer.