Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Mark Turner <markt AT siteseers.net>]

Tanner Lovelace wrote:
>   Some witnesses who contacted the Observer on Thursday wondered whether it
>   could be debris from the recent anti-satellite test by China.
>
> That's as good an explanation as any and MUCH better than the alternatives.

Tanner, you know satellites don't put on that kind of show when they 
burn up.

If you'll recall, it became a popular sport among astronomers to watch 
Iridium satellites reenter the atmosphere. They'd provide a nice flash 
in the sky (if you knew where to look) and then poof, they were gone. No 
mass hysteria, no UFO reports. Certainly nothing like this.

Any satellite China successfully managed to zap would supposedly reenter 
in much smaller pieces: a reentry much less spectacular than a full 
satellite. So what could have been a nice flash has now been reduced to 
something even less noticable.

The NORAD spokesman said this is "probably not" related to the Chinese 
anti-satellite tests. Its their job to track space junk and they're 
pretty good at it, so I'll take his word for it.

Kelly had an appointment in Wake Forest on Tuesday evening, so these are 
definitely separate sightings on different evenings.

Two spectacular fireballs twenty-two hours apart? Figure the odds!

Mark