Originally posted by quadricle

I did several ATS searches on this but couldn't find anything.....

No big deal. I just posted the link for reference.

cheers for that WOS.

The fuel burn idea mentioned in that thread sounds plausible, although I don't know enough about aircraft to know what one of those looks like.

The one thing that looks a bit odd if it WAS a meteor though, is the shortness of the trail. A fast meteor (I'd imagine) would have a longer straighter trail. The second, wider angle view shows the trail already starting to disipate, so maybe this thing was falling too slowly to be from space?

Maybe there was some sort of military test going on? or maybe just some near/actual accident they wanted to keep quiet given the war situation? The contrail theory though just doesn't wash for me though..particularly when you compare this image to the real thing.

good mystery!

I remember about 7 year when I was still in junior high. It was a night summer break had just begun when we saw a UFO for the very first time. We observed it for nearly 15 min ( although it had been there much longer ). Then, it suddenly sped off into the space leaving only a brief red tail of the after image of the redish light it luminated. After that my family went back inside and I was the only one left in the parking lot in disbelief. Thats when I saw another object similar to the picture posted here. It was not a regular shooting star or meteorite, becuase it was just way too big to be one. It was spitting out whitish sparks of light as it slowly came down to earth where it dissappeared behind the tree line. The only difference between the image and the one I saw was the color. It was entirly white. If I had a car back then, I would definitely drive down to where it landed and see it for myself. I used to live in Amherst, Massachusetts. There is a nuclear power plant and a Air force base not too far from there. I am not sure if they are in any way related.

Originally posted by muppet
Ditto the sorry mod

It's still not a contrail though.

Notice how the sun illuminates the TOP of the trail, and not the bottom. Since the sun is setting/already set in this picture, it means the trail is pointing DOWN, not horizontal as an aircraft contrail would. Do a search for "contrail sunset". Lots of photos, but none like this.

You are assuming that the trail is flat and level. Planes do climb and decend.

Originally posted by HowardRoark
You are assuming that the trail is flat and level. Planes do climb and decend.

A real contrail would at least be close to level, particularly over such short distances. The trail in the picture though shows clear illumination on it's "upper"/"further" side, not it's underside. This means the trail has to be at a VERY steep angle. Since the sun is nearly at the horizon; way to steep for any commercial jet, and way to close/low given the conditions to form a contrail anyway.

robertfenix,

what do you make of the length of the trail, as seen in the Heywood picture earlier in this thread? is that consistent with a fuel dump? It just looks a bit long to me thats all..

the length of the trail really is not that long all things considered. If it was a fuel dump it should have been above 5000 feet. It might have been dumped higher and as it fell down in altitude was ignited by some source and burned until the fuel was exhausted. A Fuel/Air Bomb kind of works under the same principal just a higher density. Fuel gets atomized at a high density then a HE trigger ignites the mass over a target. In this case a "glob" of fuel somehow was ignited and burned as the mass dropped in altitude.

It made the UK news last year if i remember rightly.

and as for 'contrails off a planes tail' that is bullracks. i work night shifts off an elevated walkway on a carpark. I have a clear view almost to Heathrow airport 15 miles away and gatwick airports near London. I see HUNDREDS of contrails of aircraft in high altitude holding patterns and if that is a contrail off a planes tail then im in the running for the Californian Governorship.

My thought is that it's an external fuel tank from a military aircraft that was ejected because of some problem and then exploded on the way down.

The explosion area shows some signifigant velocity, and it appears that whatever the object is, if it is exploding, it's begining to break up.

My theory is that some military aircraft had a mechanical problem in an external fuel tank, maybe a potental fire or something, and dropped it, the tank began to fall towards the ground, but caught fire and exploded before it hit. This would explain the shortness of the trail, the explosion and the vector.

May Peace Travel With You
~Astral

How does Occham's Razor support the contrail theory?

TOO steep to be a contrail. Sorry but Ozram's Razor does not apply here.

Originally posted by robertfenix
TOO steep to be a contrail. Sorry but Ozram's Razor does not apply here.

Too steep and too short.

Originally posted by ThatsJustWeird

Originally posted by robertfenix
TOO steep to be a contrail. Sorry but Ozram's Razor does not apply here.

Too steep and too short.

How can you tell this from a photograph taken from miles away?

I remember back in 1999 after a school conference I was going home and I saw a thing JUST like that coing across the sky, I swear it was the largest thing I've ever seen in the sky. I was heading Eastbound, so was the meteor, and it was at approx. 45-50 degrees up from the southern horizon.


THE most amazing thing I've ever seen in the sky.

As in this case, it very well could have been a meteor. Think about it: thousands of pieces of space debri fly into earth on a daily basis. I wouldn't be surprised too much if a sofa sized rock came hurtling across the sky during a outdoor baseball game or something.

After all, it's not possible to pick EVERYTHING up that goes through our air.

[edit on 15-6-2004 by Socalbmx]

Cool!!
Did you hear any noise from it at all? crackling or explosions or anything?
What did the trail look like?

The sky was nearly completely an orange-yellow-ish, and the sun was setting RIGHT at the horizon when the meteor went streaking across....

However, after reading the theory that particles in the air refelcted sunlight and made it seem like that is quite plausible....

It's kinda hazy but the thing stayed in the air for a while, probably another 5 minutes before it shrank and turned into nothing..just smoke everywhere. Half of the contrail was orange as well, looked like it was really burning like mad.