NUFORC Sighting 176581

Occurred: 2023-07-03 22:10 Local
Reported: 2023-07-04 08:12 Pacific
Duration: Approximately 1 minute
No of observers: 0

Location: Knoxville, TN, USA
Location details: My backyard

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Lights on object

White strobe-like light moving at very high speed with instant acceleration and deceleration, with instant 90 degree turns.

On July 3rd 2023, while sitting in my backyard hot tub, I saw something I've never seen before.

It was at 22:10 EST in Knoxville TN. The sky had some thin patchy clouds, about 15% coverage. I noticed a rapidly flashing white light, strobe-like, to the North, near Polaris. It was above the clouds and I could see it thru a patch of thin clouds as they passed beneath it.

Suddenly, from its stationary position, it moved E at a very high rate of speed, accelerating instantly, moving out from behind the wispy cloud I first noticed it in to a clear spot in the sky. It traversed approximately 45 degrees (from 000 to 045) in approximately 1 second. It then stopped instantly, was stationary for another second and then immediately moved W at the same speed at a 90 degree angle from its initial trajectory, with no observable turn. It was as though it stopped and then rotated 90 degrees and accelerated again, stopping after it transited approximately 35 degrees to a second position in the sky. Again, it stopped immediately with no apparent deceleration.

After holding stationary for about one second, it accelerated again at the same apparent speed back towards Polaris (000 degrees). Once there, it stopped again as before and after one second it again appeared to rotate 90 degrees and accelerated to the west (270) until I lost it behind my house.
It made no sound and the white strobe flashed the whole time at the same intensity. It was behind thin clouds when I first noticed it; after that it was in clear skies. The whole encounter took approximately 1 minute, maybe less. Its overall path approximated a right angle triangle, until it went west.

I'm a retired Navy Commander, and Systems Engineer and have seen many different lights at sea in the sky at night, as well as from my backyard; satellites, the International Space Station, meteors and various aircraft, all moving at various speeds. I have never seen any object in the sky move at the speed this one did. It moved across the sky almost instantly, covering a 45 degree arc in about 1 second. I would estimate it traveled 3-4 times faster than any aircraft I have ever seen.

Posted 2023-07-10