I was just wondering if anyone had reported sightings of what
looked like comets falling or ‘space’ debris falling through the
atmosphere on Oct. 26 from around noon to 3 p.m. over the Morgan
Hill, San Martin, Gilroy or Salinas areas?
“I was just wondering if anyone had reported sightings of what looked like comets falling or ‘space’ debris falling through the atmosphere on Oct. 26 from around noon to 3 p.m. over the Morgan Hill, San Martin, Gilroy or Salinas areas? I was driving to my dad’s house in San Juan Bautista from San Jose and saw about six different images of what looked like the tails of a comet at different times and areas around highway 101. They were pretty interesting. It was nothing like the condensation trail/streams a jet makes either.
Planes are not supposed to appear to be falling out of the sky if I remember correctly. Besides I also saw planes that day too with their “cloudy” trails and their tail trails last longer in the sky. And you can SEE the plane in front of the white trail, even ones that don’t last as long. That day was warm and had clear skies until later in the afternoon.
The first one I spotted while driving on HWY 101 after passing the golf course before Morgan Hill. But by the time I got off on Cochrane(?) exit to get a picture, it had faded out. And that one was the largest one. I thought it was a plane at first but then after watching it “falling” with a thick white tail, it looked like an object burning up as it enters the atmosphere. I have seen it before many years ago, and it was reported to be space debris. But they didn’t have an appearance of moving all that fast, they weren’t shooting across the sky. More like appearing in the sky, drifting across or downward and then fading out.
I’m not saying we are being invaded either. They were just different and nothing like Ive seen. My dad and his girlfriend watched a few from his hillside as well. Just as fascinated.”
Red Phone: Dear UFO Watcher, We’re not sure what spied, but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t a comet or meteor.
There was a major meteor shower that did come through last week. The Orionid meteor shower, which is the remains of Haley’s comet, began Oct. 15 and ran through Thursday. While you may see the meteors during the early morning hours, you won’t see them during the day, local meteorologists said.
“It definitely wasn’t a comet,” said Warren Blier, a science and operations officer for the National Weather Service in Monterey. “Those are identified and well-tracked long before they become visible in daylight to the naked eye. Several of the photos appear to show two parallel plumes suggestive of jet engines on both sides of the fuselage.”
Ron Dammann, with the Fremont Peak Observatory Association, also confirmed the sightings were not objects from space. “They are contrails from a high altitude jet or jets. They are not images of meteors,” he said.
And they don’t appear to be space junk either, said local astronomer Doug Brown.
“Based on the EXIF timestamps embedded in the photos, these were much too slow moving to have been re-entering space junk or meteors,” he said. “The angular rate of motion is consistent with them being aircraft contrails. Also, a couple of shots show very symmetrical twin plumes, which are characteristic of wingtip vortices.”
Astronomer Patrick Donnelly echoed his thoughts.
“My experience with space debris is that they are visible for only about 5-10 seconds before they burn out,” he said. “Unless you have your camera at the ready, there is no time to get the camera and take the picture before the object burns out. It could also be someone finally looking up at the sky and seeing a bunch of contrails in the sky. The one picture with two objects shows the trails as not parallel. I’ve seen space debris and the trails are dead on parallel.”
So you may want to hold off on that call to Area 51.
Homeless under Welburn bridge
“I am a resident of Welburn Avenue. I am calling about the bridge at the start of Welburn Avenue going westbound. It has more people under it than the Best Western or Hyatt. We’ve called various agencies – water district, city, county and federal. But nobody claims jurisdiction. Can you help me there?”
Red Phone: Dear What To Do, The Gilroy Police Department regularly makes contact with homeless people and offers them assistance.
“It looks like I didn’t go far enough south, but I will take a look at it,” said Gilroy Police Officer Stuart Jaquez, who has been working with the city’s Homeless Steering Committee for about a year to keep people off the streets.
He said on some days he’ll talk to six to 12 homeless people.
“It’s all about communication,” Jaquez said. “We try pick the top six to 10 we can help each month and work with those. There are a lot of single women. We try to work with the people who want help first. Ninety percent of the people we talk to are really receptive.”
