TEXAS FIREBALL: Space Pollution May Be Falling On Dallas

DALLAS — What looked like a fireball streaked across the Texas sky on Sunday morning, leading many people to call authorities to report seeing falling debris.

"We don't know what it was," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig.

The Williamson County Sheriff's Office used a helicopter to search after callers said they thought they saw a plane crashing, a spokesman said.

"We don't doubt what people saw" but authorities found nothing, said spokesman John Foster.

The U.S. Strategic Command said there was no connection to the sightings over Texas and Tuesday's collision of satellites from the U.S. and Russia.

"There is no correlation between the debris from that collision and those reports of re-entry," said Maj. Regina Winchester, with STRATCOM.

The FAA notified pilots on Saturday to be aware of possible space debris after a collision Tuesday between U.S. and Russian communication satellites. The chief of Russia's Mission Control says clouds of debris from the collision will circle Earth for thousands of years and threaten numerous satellites.

Comments

[TEETAAT]

08:44 AM on 02/17/2009

"The FAA notified pilots on Saturday to be aware of possible space debris after a collision Tuesday between U.S. and Russian communication satellites. "

And the point of doing this was what FAA?

Why not give pilots some instructions on how to avoid a collision with these randomly re-entering objects. (ugh)

Why has the FAA not warned pilots to be aware of meteorites? (rimshot?)

Can't do anything ahead of time about either of them in terms of avoidance. Pilot would have to deal with an emergency situation...

[LintLass]

09:54 PM on 02/17/2009

The point being that pilots need to know what they may be seeing up there.

[AngieMom57]

10:42 PM on 02/16/2009

Just a coincidence right?

Planes and satellite parts falling out of the sky, seems like this is the stuff a good science fiction novel is make of, only now its real folks...yahoo

[Shtick]

12:56 AM on 02/17/2009

So now gravity is part of a conspiracy?

[TXfemmom]

08:26 PM on 02/16/2009

Well, Bush just moved to Dallas, think God is trying to say something to Bush and Dallas?

[Amalek]

06:20 AM on 02/17/2009

It was a warning shot. Republicans need to stop being such jerks or God is going to take out Crawford.

[bccmeteorites]

07:11 PM on 02/16/2009

An Astronomer from the University of North Texas was quoted in news reports as saying "it was probably a carbonaceous meteorite about the size of a truck". This is not true. I've studied most known types of meteorites. A Carbonaceous Chondrite which is a type of stony meteorite this big would have exploded into smaller fragments and pieces due to atmospheric pressure and velocity. Therefore if it was a meteorite, it could not have been as big as truck, or it was not a Carbonaceous Chondrite-stony meteorite.

http://www.bccmeteorites.com/misconduct-planetary.html

[Amalek]

06:21 AM on 02/17/2009

You mean that Professors from the University of North Texas b.s. just as much as other Texans?

[GoogleMaster]

04:31 PM on 02/16/2009

Maybe that was Iran's new satellite running out of gas. Now they'll have to wait a whole 'nother darned month for Russia to give them a new one. Who knows, maybe Russia won't forget to ship it to them with the Nukes onboard this time.

[chainbreaker]

04:18 PM on 02/16/2009

Those nutty evangelicals who have been waiting for the Rapture to descend from the heavens are instead getting the Crapture.

[gascelebrations]

08:26 PM on 02/16/2009

Perfect!

[TXfemmom]

08:27 PM on 02/16/2009

LOL

[Pippen]

02:01 PM on 02/16/2009

God is hurling objects at "W" in a fit.

Poor Dallas

[TXfemmom]

08:27 PM on 02/16/2009

Bush is temporarily living in Crawford. Maybe God didn't get that memo.

[ReallyMe]

01:48 PM on 02/16/2009

The alien craft that the retired one arrived in crashed when attempting to retrieve him?

[KeepItMoving08]

01:47 PM on 02/16/2009

UFOs have their target and his name is GEORGE BUSH

[sbvpav]

01:06 PM on 02/16/2009

i saw the same thing about two weeks ago in the early evening just south of eugene, oregon. pretty spectacular and definitely not a meteor. what the heck was that!

[jazzblues]

01:14 PM on 02/16/2009

You were probably on crack imagining these fire balls in sky rather than actually seeing one...hehe :)

just kidding...hehe...

[Shtick]

12:53 AM on 02/17/2009

How can you be sure it was not a meteor? How many have you seen?

[Tabasco]

01:04 PM on 02/16/2009

It is a sign from the heavens of the glorious return to power of our beneficent GOP Overlords.

Or it's useless falling space junk burning itself into extinction......

Or both.

[Cobia]

12:58 PM on 02/16/2009

Just to clarify this article: Williamson county is about 160 miles SW of Dallas. Williamson is North of, and adjacent to Austin.
Not that a 'something' fireball seen in Dallas couldn't have come down near Austin, the story omitted any reference to direction of the object(s).

[wmholt]

05:54 PM on 02/16/2009

You're correct. Georgetown, Tx is in Williamson County, north of Austin.

[Cobia]

09:30 PM on 02/16/2009

Forgot,
Crawford is almost exactly halfway between Dallas and Willianson county/Georgetown.
I guess the denizens of Central Texas are going to have to get used to strange goings on.

[1differentdrummer]

05:48 AM on 02/17/2009

If they aren't used to strange goings on now they never will be. It's Texas.

[forpeace]

12:41 PM on 02/16/2009

*

Dallas?

Isn't it where Bush lives right now?

I wonder why?!

*

[KenGirl]

01:09 PM on 02/16/2009

I live there too. What's your point?

[forpeace]

01:40 PM on 02/16/2009

*
KenGirl
-------
Just checking!
*

[SouthJerseySteve]

01:14 PM on 02/16/2009

I was thinking the same thing -- Karma baby!!!

[elr50]

12:05 PM on 02/16/2009

Texas and Florida will never notice any more crap-they are already full of it.

[den1953]

12:02 PM on 02/16/2009

I always new Bush was a space cadet?

[theboardedwindow]

04:57 PM on 02/16/2009

here's an idea, deni:

in the future, should you wish for your comments to actually be taken any more seriously than Bush's,... please take the time to learn to differentiate between "new" and "knew" (perhaps even "gnu.") you may also want to refresh yourself on simple, core sentence punctuation. (a declarative statement, by nature, is not a question.)

at this point,... you're not doing yourself any favors in the "I'm Smarter Than Former President Bush Department."

[ please see "1st Grade Elementary School English Curriculum" for assistance. ]

while i cannot stand Bush, i dislike blatant ignorance even more. it isn't solely Bush's ignorance which has been quite literally flushing America down the toilet for the last few decades.... it's basic lack of education, ignorance, and gestating a culture which seems to sensationalize, nurture, and foster ignorance and stupidity.

talk about the kettle calling the pot black.... **seriously shudders in actual revulsion & disgust**

[stupidllama]

05:32 PM on 02/16/2009

really? you really felt the need to correct someones grammar in an eight(8) word sentence? really?

[SusanFromTX]

06:56 PM on 02/16/2009

While I agree with your comments, in general, I couldn't help but notice that you don't seem to have mastered capitalization. About that pot.....