NUFORC Sighting 124931

Occurred: 2015-12-22 18:45 Local
Reported: 2015-12-22 19:56 Pacific
Duration: 90 seconds

Location: Goleta, CA, USA

Shape: Fireball

Fireball shoots across early evening sky for a minute and half over the city of Los Angeles.

Sitting in my backyard patio at twenty past dusk talking to a friend on the phone: I saw what appeared to be a slow meteor. I would estimate a velocity of under 20K km/hr but greater than 5K km/hr. The fireball appeared over the coast range of mountains to the northeast at an elevation of about 25 degrees.

It proceeded on a level trajectory for a very long minute and a half or so to the SSE. It did not dim or brighten until the end of the ionization track at which point the somewhat fuzzy ion track appeared to break up and spray out a little as it dimmed and went out. This ion source did not leave a trail of any kind, it burned through the sky and was gone. Other fireball meteors I have seen have left ion trails and sometimes smoke trails. This one didn't. Would this suggest a (nuke power perhaps?) satellite reentry? Most likely not as I would expect a significant glowing smoke trail at this time of day. Having witnessed multiple rocket launches from Vandenberg I know very much what they look like going up.

NUFORC Note:

Re-entering space debris. PD

Posted 2016-01-05