Enhanced version.
This appeared in the sky at about 7:51pm MDT.
It appeared just west of due north about 15deg above the horizon, transited slowly about 25-30 degrees nearly perfectly horizontally, then exploded.
The object emitted what appeared …
Enhanced version.
This appeared in the sky at about 7:51pm MDT.
It appeared just west of due north about 15deg above the horizon, transited slowly about 25-30 degrees nearly perfectly horizontally, then exploded.
The object emitted what appeared from my viewing angle to be twin emissions which were either comet trails or rocket engine(s).
My observations and analysis:
The emissions were similar to a mercury arc but were in space, not the atmosphere. I cannot ascertain whether these were comet tails or rocket emissions.
The object appeared to explode and there were two distinct spherical fields from the explosion. The fields were uniformly spherical and undistorted which suggests they were in space rather than the atmosphere.
The object did not appear to change size over the course of its transit suggesting a slow transit across the sky parallel to earth rather than an object moving towards earth.
My interpretation is that the object was either a missile, likely a minuteman or similar ballistic missile, an object in space with rockets which ultimately exploded, or a very small comet which when approaching earth broke up in a manner which cause two tails to appear and then each half exploded simultaneously - yeah, sounds less believable now that I write it.
This was NOT a space ship or any kind of manned vessel. It exploded. It only moved for a minute or two. It did not deviate from its course.
Anyone else see this?
I emailed my observations and link to the Tiktok version of this video to Palomar Observatory. My email is censored and I received no reply so I do not know if they received my message.
I am still looking for other observers, especially to establish distance/speed of the object. It was not within the atmosphere and transited the sky very quickly. When I saw it my reaction was that it was the end of everything because it looked like an incoming comet. I now suspect it was manmade, likely a US Minuteman missle launch. I will have to confirm because the object clearly had two emissions trails. I confirmed the object was in space by the explosions. If a Minuteman has two engines/tanks, it would explain both observations.
I will also try to see if the test was documented and occurred at a time which this video would explain.
