UFO paints sky white, blue, red
2009-11-22 22:52
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Middelburg - "The sky suddenly turned bright white. Within a few seconds, the object, which looked like a soccer ball with a tail, turned the heavens blue and then a flaming red."
This is how Juan Ferreira, 25, from Witbank, described the "unidentified flying object" which had people in Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Limpopo staring wide-eyed at the sky at about 23:00 on Saturday night.
The glowing object was apparently seen most clearly in the Middelburg/Witbank area.
According to Tim Cooper, director of comets and meteorites at the Astronomical Association of Southern Africa, the object was a "fireball" of space debris from the asteroid belt, which had entered the earth's atmosphere.
Several people phoned the association on Sunday to find out exactly what it was that they had seen.
According to Cooper it can't be called a meteorite, since, as far as is known, it didn't hit the earth.
Cooper said the object was moving in a north-westerly direction.
"It's not exactly the object which glows so brightly, but rather the air around it which burns due to the high speeds at which the object moves."
Only one or two such bright moving objects can be seen in South Africa per year, although about 10 000 tons' worth of objects enter the earth's atmosphere each year.
Size of a fist
Cooper estimates that the object was probably about the size of a fist, or perhaps a rugby ball.
Ferreira had been on patrol for the neighbourhood watch when he noticed the object.
"It was extraordinary. The object moved at a constant speed at an angle of about 45°."
Gido Koegelenberg, 22, and his friend Darelle Loots, 22, from Middelburg, were on their way home after a work function held just outside of town when they saw the fireball.
"At first I thought it was lightning, but the whole night sky became as bright as daylight."
Just like Ferreira, Koegelenberg says the colour of the sky turned from bright white to blue, and then red.
According to Cooper, the Astronomical Association received calls from places as far apart as Kempton Park, Tzaneen, Polokwane and Hartbeespoort Dam.