Unidentifyable Flying Object.....?

Question

About a month ago, I was coming down my stairs at 5:45 AM on a Tuesday when I looked out the giant window (that lets you see a chandelier from the street) when I saw an orange glowing ball of light quickly fall from the sky and into my across-the-street neighbor's backyard. I live in Suburbia so I doubt this was a shooting star of some sort (where I live you can see about 10 stars per night) and since this was in the early morning, I don't think it was a toy. What was it?

Serious answers only, please!

I mean toy as in some insane 5 year od throwing up a glowing ball in the air. That sorta thing.

K pplz, I'm sorry I didn't give enough info! I'm only in High School! It fell for about 3 seconds befor it landed in their yard. The sun wasn't even up yet, so it wasn't that. it looked to be a little more than half a foot wide.

Answer 1

My first inclination is to ask you if you checked the neighbor's backyard to see what might be there. Unfortunately, I'll probably never hear from you again. I'll have to assume you didn't check (vicious dog, nasty neighbor, etc).

There is a phenomenon called ball-lightning which is responsible for many UFO reports. Ball-lightning is usually at a much higher color temperature, yellow to blue-white. It is known to roll along the ground and can be effected by the wind. Ball-lightning is usually 2 to 4 feet in diameter. (You didn't mention what size the object appeared to be. Is this possible?)

Frankly, my best guess is that you saw a reflection from the inner surface of the giant window. This is especially likely if it was still dark outside. Was there a second window behind you? Were you facing north-west, so that the image of the rising sun might have passed through the window behind you and reflected off of the giant window and back into your eyes?

Mysteries like this are always fun. It's to your credit that you didn't begin hysterically claiming you saw a "real" alien spacecraft. I'll bet, sooner or later, you'll discover a perfectly plausible explanation.

Answer 2

Dear person:

It is difficult to provide you with a real answer to this question because you failed to give us some basic
information on the sighting. I would recommend that
you ask the question again with this information provided...

1.) The orange ball I saw passed through XYZ degrees
of the horizon in about /%*& seconds.

2.) The size of the orange ball appeared to be (give a
real estimate in comparison to something you know
the real size of and look at that object from a long distance. Then tell us the object, its size, and the size comparison at what distance. Such as: a baseball, 4 1/2 inches diameter, about the same as a baseball seen from
50 feet away.

3.) Go back to the window you looked through and look
out of it again. notice any particular markers like tree
limbs, corners of roofs, telephone poles, things like that...
Then go outside and pick out those references. Did the
orange ball really fall into the neighbor's yard, or did it
actually pass over the distant horizon?

4.) I suspect what you saw was a meteorite falling through the sky. Some of them are truly spectacular
in flight and move at exceptional speeds. For the most part they are small bits of ice, rock, and/or dust from outer space that burn up when encountering the Earth's atmosphere.

I would like to refer you to Ian Ridpath's Book, ASTRONOMY, DK Publishing, NY, NY. He provides a
very nice explanation of meteorites and that may help explain your sighting. Key to this sighting is the actual direction of travel of the orange ball, and if it was tail-less,
or had a long tail.

I can also refer you to
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/index.php

On that site you can find answers to many of the questions you might have about outer space. Some very
excellent photos are found there also, and you will be
amazed at the clarity of some of the photos.

Good luck,
Zah

Answer 3

First of all, a meteor can hit anywhere. It doesn't matter if you are in the city or how many stars you can see. A "shooting star" is not a star, it is a flaming piece of rock from space. From what you described, it very well could have been a small meteor. I've seen one fall relatively close before as well and it looked a lot like what you described. It could have been ball lightning too. Both of these phenomena are very rare.

Answer 4

Why would you doubt it was a meteor just because you live in suburbia? (Plenty of meteors are bright enough to see even from the middle of New York City.) I'm guessing that's exactly what it was and that it only *appeared* to land in your neighbor's yard.

Answer 5

it could have been a small meteor, when it enters the earth's atmosphere it burns up because of its speed creating a glowing orange effect and most meteors burn up completely before hitting the earth's surface. good luck with your probable ufo though

Answer 6

a toy in the sky. haha yes people see things sometimes.

Answer 7

it must be an ufo! u r a very lucky person to witness it .now go report to national ufo research center if possible mail me im very interested in tis subject mail:[e-mail]

Answer 8

temporary eye thingie
since it was dark, maybe it was an afterimage of a light inside your house

Answer 9

I know you said serious.. and i am. Toilet waste from a high flying jet ejected erroneously over a populated area and combusting spontaneously ?? oh k idunno about spontaneously catching fire but the rest could happen :)

Answer 10

A meteoroid.