UFO Or Meteor? FAA Weighs In On Burst Of Light Shooting Over Texas Sky

A blaze of light shooting across the Texas sky got people talking, spurring the Federal Aviation Administration to examine stunning police footage.

The bluish-green streak seen as far north as Oklahoma City and as far south as Houston was "most likely" a meteor or piece of space junk, officials say, according to the Austin-American Statesman.

FAA officials hunkered down with dashboard camera footage provided by Little River-Academy Police Chief Troy Hess, who observed the Wednesday night light show at Bell County town.

"It kept getting bigger, and the color kept changing," Hess told the paper.

Nearby residents in the small Texas town thought this bizarre flying object might be a distressed aircraft crashing or the sort of UFO visitation celebrated in Steven Spielberg movies, ITN reports.

The UFO talk crops up whenever these strange light shows occur. In September, a greenish streak spotted across several West Coast states opened the door to a lot of conjecture. That's expected, Edwin Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, told The Huffington Post.

"Certainly, it's correct to say that most people are not used to looking at the sky, not used to evaluating either brightness, distance or angular size in the sky, and therefore, have a very good chance of misidentifying objects or effects in the sky," said Krupp. "There are all kinds of explanations for UFOs, and the least likely is that they're spacecraft from another world."

PHOTOS: UFOs? Maybe They're Just . .

• Sunken Ship in the Baltic Sea

  On June 19th the Swedish-based diving company Ocean Explorer discovered something they've never quite seen before. They were exploring in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland looking for sunken treasures when a very unusual image suddenly appeared on the sonar. A 197 feet diameter cylinder shaped object was discovered at the depth of approximately 275 feet which resembles the Millennium Falcon from the movie Star Wars.

• Weather Phenomenon

  Some UFO sightings may be due to a natural phenomenon known as sprites, like this one shown from 2006. "Lightning from [a] thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite," said geophysicist Colin Price.

• Manufactured UFO -- 2011

  Pictured is a quad copter -- a deliberately manufactured UFO created by special effects wizard Marc Dantonio for a National Geographic special, "The Truth Behind: UFOs," which aired in December 2011. On the left is what the small device looks like resting on the ground, measuring 4 feet in circumference. At right, is how it appeared behind a tree in the night sky.

• Police Dashboard Camera In Texas

  In February of 2012, this fireball was captured by a Texas police chief's A dashboard camera. F.A.A. say this was probably a meteor, falling to Earth. .

• Lanterns

  These candle-lit Chinese lanterns can rise high into the sky and were mistaken for UFOs in England.

• Clouds

  Clouds: Saucer-shaped or "lenticular" clouds that form at high altitudes have been confused with UFOs.

• Meteors

  Meteors: Space debris can create a spectacular light show when it burns through the Earth's atmosphere, and sometimes reported as UFOs.

• Civilian or Military Aircraft

  Civilian or military aircraft: Planes can look mysterious at night or in certain light conditions, thus confusing an observer.

• Blimps or Advertising Balloons

  Blimps or advertising balloons: These can look like flying saucers from some angles, especially at night.

Comments

[guoyakla]

12:39 AM on 02/16/2012

fake.....

[GatsbyGal]

06:49 PM on 02/14/2012

I knew I couldn't have been the only one to see this! I never heard anything about it locally. I saw this first-hand while I was driving in Austin. It was definitely a meteor or "space junk". I've seen plenty of shooting stars and it moved just like that. I could even see small fiery bits falling off the tail of it as it fell (and yes it had a tail...you can't see it in that black and white footage, but it was there). It was a meteor and not a UFO. And this is coming from someone who believes 100% that UFOs exist and visit/have visited earth.

[jdmazzarellavt]

11:42 AM on 02/14/2012

If a UFO is unidentified flying object, and people call it an alien aircraft, wouldn't it technically be "identified" and therefore be known as an IFO?

:P

[bigdaveh]

03:46 PM on 02/09/2012

Refraction of an oncoming car coming towards to police cruiser

[iamwired]

02:16 PM on 02/07/2012

Its The Blob

[Ken Kool]

07:29 AM on 02/07/2012

It was Obama's birth certificate

[ibra]

06:57 AM on 02/07/2012

Well I dont know what to comment on this
*confused*

http://www.weird-strange-facts.com

[Chris Hanmer]

12:17 AM on 02/07/2012

BS I've never seen a meteor travel that slowly........

[westcoastsc]

09:41 PM on 02/06/2012

Too slow to be a meteor.

[Woodsie]

04:15 PM on 02/06/2012

Three weeks ago, about 2;30 in the morning, (in central Ky.) I couldn't sleep and got up, turned the tv on in the den, but no lights, and from the armchair I have a good view of the night sky through the opened upper window shutters. About ten minutes later, a flash caught my eye and I saw a bright orange object sail by fast and disappear over the hills. I knew it wasn't a shooting star; seen plenty of them out here, and it was a bigger, brighter 'ball'. I thought it must be a meteor or a plane afire but not a mention the next day of anything. It made me remember Hale-Bopp and miss it... : )

[Ghostdog9579]

03:52 PM on 02/06/2012

It was just e-mail from god to Pat Robertson...

[ojhart4]

12:06 PM on 02/06/2012

I don't get it. Why is it so hard for people to understand that we are not alone in this vast universe. I would find it more surprising if it is proven there is no intelligent life in the Universe besides us.

[brokenpencilprod]

10:40 AM on 02/06/2012

Okay, once again, until an object that is moving across the sky (i.e., flying) is identified, it is, by definition an unidentified flying object. The term "UFO," although popular in fiction to mean "object from outer space," it simply means Unidentified Flying Object, an object not recognized by those (or even one) who sees it. So, in my humble opinion, and by this definition, it was, indeed, a UFO.

[dotnan]

08:14 AM on 02/06/2012

The Bible says in the last days there will be "signs and wonders in the heavens"

[hplhenry]

08:41 AM on 02/06/2012

It also says some nut built a big boat and put two of every breed of animal in the world on it.

[brokenpencilprod]

10:42 AM on 02/06/2012

Your point is..... seeing as how evidence of said "big boat" has been found, and evidence of the flood has also been documented?

[mynamesyow]

01:54 PM on 02/08/2012

idk about the animals, but there are around 2000 Flood myths reported by cultures from all over the world throughout history...

[Jon Whittaker]

07:32 AM on 02/06/2012

"Confirmed that it was probably..." How is that confirmation? Meteors don't move that slow

[iamwired]

02:15 PM on 02/07/2012

Its like saying they are 80% Completely Sure.