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ASTROIDS, FIREBALLS, 2023 BU
ARE THE WATCHERS WATCHING?
On the evening of January 29, I sat on my deck overlooking Aransas, Bay, Rockport. I enjoy a broad view toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Over my many years on this planet this time around, I’ve spent a lot of enjoyable time sky watching.
Close to 7:30 PM I saw on this clear night the most beautiful aerial display I’ve ever seen. Three bright fireballs with long fire tails trailing behind came streaking horizontally southwest toward northeast, my right to left.
I watched them for about five seconds, an unusually long time for a fireball to live. I didn’t see a burn out. They just flew far enough to the north that I lost sight of them, as they maintained steady speed, formation, and brightness.
I was so awed by the surprising beauty before me that, of course, I failed to pick up my i-Phone camera, expecting any second they would burn out. They didn’t. They were the largest fireballs I’ve observed.
I quickly thought, “Much more than meteors, not UFOs, eight of which I’ve seen in category ‘First Kind’. None I’ve seen left a fire trail. It is very rare that they do. Not likely space debris, moving horizontally and lasting that long. So, what were they.”
First thought, probably a decent size astroid grazing our upper atmosphere and breaking into three pieces of virtually equal size. I wondered how I missed the news from JPL that this was was about to happen?