NUFORC Sighting 20735

Occurred: 2001-12-01 21:20 Local
Reported: 2001-12-08 07:09 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object, Left a trail, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

5 blue-white spheres w/bright, glowing trails, traveling slowly from south to north over Albuquerque, 9:20 pm, 12/01/01

My son(26) & I were driving on I-40, heading east down the hills into Albuquerque, N.M. At approximately 9:20 pm (N.M. time) we observed a formation of 5 very bright spheres with long, arcing, glowing tails traveling slowly from south to north. The first 3 were in a triangular formation and much brighter than the last 2, which were offset from each other. The latter 2 abruptly disappeared, and the remaining ones continued to travel all accross the sky, disappearing behind the northern mountain range. They were too slow to be meteorites, and we could see them very clearly. My son is a physicist & amateur astronomer and I am a teacher & book illustrator. Neither of us believe that aliens visit or "walk among us!", but we could not explain what we saw. We discussed all the possible explanations for our "sighting" and came to the conclusion that they moved too deliberately to be "space junk" or huge bright comets. They were definitely not airplanes, as they had very bright, glowing trails that followed their arc of travel. Occasionally they would flash with blue light. They were the largest objects in the sky - impossible to ignore.

((FOLLOW-UP COMMUNICATION))

Thanks for believing me! I have since heard reports of Russian space debris
entering our atmosphere (possible rocket casing) that correspond to the date
& time I reported. It was a fine thing to see!

NUFORC Note:

Probably space debris. Please see other reports. PD

Posted 2002-01-11