A bright object moving through the skies earlier this week was seen along the eastern part of the U.S. North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley delves into just what the phenomenon was.
People out watching the Perseid meteor shower were surprised to see a larger and brighter object move across the sky Tuesday night.
“From seemingly out of nowhere a very large misshapen orb seemed to be floating across the sky from the west heading north,” Seth McGowan recounted.
Adirondack Sky Center and Observatory President Seth McGowan was leading a night viewing of the meteor shower
“We all looked at it thinking it was a very strange thing to see in the sky. One of our astronomers, Gordie Duvall, after a few minutes he recognized it. It was a rocket that was launched.” McGowan said. “We were feeling much better about the experience at that point. But we did have a lot of jittery conversation with people. Mostly laughter about the fact that it could be a UFO.”
The Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium is in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Planetarium Manager Christian Bradley Hubbs said he did not see it, but notes that rocket launches can often be seen in the night sky.
“I’ve seen them coming up the East Coast at the right time in the evening where the rocket stage goes up into the sunlight and I can see the plume from the exhaust,” Bradley Hubbs said. “It’s not too uncommon for this to happen. It just requires the timing of the rocket launch being in the evening and having the sunlight illuminate this.”
McGowan says what people saw was the solid booster rockets being jettisoned.
“It was the separation of some solid booster rockets that were jettisoned. The first stage burned for about five minutes or so and then the second glowed for a little while as well,” McGowan said.
McGowan says the rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral while Hubbs says the launch occurred in French Guiana. Hubbs explains there were two rocket launches that night.
“It was actually a really interesting coincidence. There were two different rocket launches within about a half-hour of each other,” Bradley Hubbs said. “One was from Cape Canaveral in Florida for the United States Space Force and this was actually going directly east over the Atlantic. The European Ariane 6 rocket launched from French Guiana. That’s the one that we were able to see because it was going into a polar orbit. And so because it was so high up we were able to see it for a wide area.”
McGowan said it was fun to watch the object as it crossed the night sky.
“When we were looking at the sky for the Perseids and looking for things to streak across the sky, that was the last thing we expected to see,” McGowan said. “Though it just made it a little bit more interesting that we were there looking for something and we sure did get a chance to see something! That’s for sure.”
