Re: What did I see in the sky?

In Dec. 2003 at 930 am Clear cold morning. I was traveling South in South Texas. I saw a black object the size of a volleyball enter the earths atmosphere. I seemed to be moving very slow. Fire started in the front of the object. I watched this over 1 min. Then there was a Flash and it was gone. I estimate the object was over the King Ranch near Kingsville. The object had to be huge in size. I have tried ti investigate and the only thing I could find near that date was a lot of Metoerites landing near NY.

Hi Gary-

Unfortunately, there is probably no way to determine with any confidence what you saw. What you describe isn't consistent with a meteor, which would show as a bright object lasting a few seconds. If you saw a black object against the sky, it must have been quite low- no more than a few miles, and probably much lower than that (and therefore smaller than it seemed). Most likely it was some sort of aircraft or balloon, but with only one witness report, there isn't much to go on.

It can be very difficult to estimate the size or velocity of objects in the sky. Our eyes and brains simply aren't equipped to handle that processing task very well, and there are many visual illusions that can very significantly- and very convincingly- distort our perceptions.