Object Was On Wrong Trajectory To Have Been Manmade, Scientist Says

If you live in North Texas, you can probably take off those hard hats now. Officials are fairly certain the fireball that streaked over Austin and Dallas -- and even up over Oklahoma, Kansas and southern Nebraska -- was probably a rare meteor event, and not debris from last week's satellite collision over Siberia.

FAA spokesman Roland Herwig told the Associated Press this week the Sunday morning phenomenon was most likely a natural event, and not any debris from a manmade object. That contradicted Herwig's initial comments Sunday -- albeit only speculation at that point -- the fireball may have been debris from a falling satellite.

The observatory manager at University of North Texas in Denton, Preston Starr, agreed... saying the object seen by hundreds of witnesses was probably a solid chunk of space flotsam, about the size of a pickup truck. The object's trajectory was wrong for it to have been satellite debris, he added... and most debris wouldn't have thrown off such a fiery trail, either.

"It would have looked like a blip, and nobody would be able to notice if it were a daytime entry," Starr said.

Still, the event caused so many emergency calls, the local sheriff's office in Williamson County dispatched a helicopter to look for a possible plane crash.

The FAA also issued a NOTAM Sunday morning, warning pilots to be advised of additional debris. That warning was quickly retracted Sunday afternoon.

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.unt.edu