Austin Fireball Ruled Out as Space Debris; So is it a UFO?

Have you seen the video footage of the UFO over Austin, Texas? You haven't? Where've you been? As I type this, CNN's Rick Sanchez is mentioning the "buzz" the "Texas fireball" or "Austin fireball" has made on the internet. And it has. It is everywhere. Gone viral, as it were.

But what is it? Is it a UFO?

Clearly seen in the blue sky above the passing runners in the Austin Marathon (February 15) is the captured image of a descending fireball. Its passage takes a mere few seconds. A local photographer, Eddie Garcia, happened to catch the Texas fireball on video. At a couple intervals, it appears to have a trailing tail, comet-like. It flares yellow briefly as it goes behind some leafless trees.

CNN is reporting that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is saying that the fiery streaking object is a meteor the size of a pick-up truck. They are also reporting that many people report hearing an explosion in the area where the meteor or UFO went down but that there seems to be no evidence in the area that anything crashed at all.

So the mystery deepens...

Some even speculated that it was space debris from the collision of the satellites that occurred Tuesday, February 10. At 11:55 a.m. EST, an Iridium American satellite crashed into a Russian Cosmos satellite 490 miles above the Earth over Siberia. Space.com reports that the FAA and the National Weather Service said that local authorities in Texas and Kentucky have reported increased strange atmospheric sightings by residents. Officials maintain that some of the debris is large enough and can be traveling at such speeds as to produce a sonic boom as it streaks across the sky.

An object falling from space - say, a piece of a satellite - that is the size of a pickup truck would more than likely create a sonic shock wave audible for miles.

But scientific and government explanations mean little to UFO enthusiasts. Skeptical and always looking for the potential government cover-up, UFO experts see the Austin fireball video as just another instance of government misdirection and obfuscation. One such expert told Rick Sanchez that the government was simply continuing its long history of lying to the American people.

Regardless, the Austin fireball has captured the imaginations of millions. Speculation runs the gamut from an alien visitation to the aforementioned space trash.

So what is it?

As I begin to end this article, Wolf Blitzer reports that the Department of Defense has ruled out that it is space debris from the satellite collision. He also is reporting that the FAA has lifted its warning to airline pilots to watch for falling debris.

It might be a UFO, an unidentified flying object, but it is doubtful that the Texas fireball is anything that might be carrying an extraterrestrial envoy...

Of course, there are few among the lay population that can speak to the subject with authority, but the video of the object makes it look every bit like a meteor. There is very little reason to believe that the government would have a need to lie about what the UFO might actually be, but, then, if it is something on the scale of an "Andromeda Strain" or that "bug" in "Men In Black," then keeping it under wraps for a few days might not be such a bad idea.

By the way, has anyone seen Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones the last couple days?

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Video of the "Austin Fireball."

More UFOs in Texas.

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Sources:

CNN.comSpace.com