What was it? Mystery fireball streaks across Hudson Valley skies
The Orange County Office of Emergency Management says they are looking into the reports and noted the object may have been spotted as far away as Philadelphia.
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A mystery fireball streaked across Hudson Valley skies Tuesday night, startling residents and prompting a wave of videos and photos shared with News 12.
Viewer video captured the fiery object plummeting through the atmosphere just after 7 p.m., with sightings reported in Orange, Ulster, Sullivan and even Delaware counties. One clip shows the descending fireball above the Westbrookville Volunteer Fire Company on Pine Kill Road, while another was recorded over the ShopRite on Dolson Avenue in Middletown.
“I was in shock like what the heck is that, you know?” said Jacqueline Duggins, of Middletown.
“The fact that it was coming down at a rapid rate really freaked me out because it was close to where we were,” added Kelli Burns, of Westbrookville.
A viewer in Delaware County also shared a still photo of the object, adding to a growing number of reports from across the region.
News 12 reached out to officials in Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties. So far, no one has been able to identify the fireball. The Orange County Office of Emergency Management says they are looking into the reports and noted the object may have been spotted as far away as Philadelphia.
News 12 meteorologists say the object does not appear to have been a meteor because of the speed and way it fell. Instead, experts say it may have been “space junk” — debris from satellites or rocket parts that occasionally fall back into Earth’s atmosphere. NASA reports that hundreds of pieces of space debris reenter the atmosphere each year, most burning up before reaching the ground.
Marc Taylor, senior manager of planetarium and science programs at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, says the difference between a natural meteor and human-made debris often comes down to speed. Meteors blaze through the atmosphere at 20 to 50 miles per second, while satellites and other space junk move closer to five miles per second. “If you have time to spot it, point it out to a friend, and maybe take a picture,” Taylor said, “it’s probably human-made debris.”
SpaceX frequently de-orbits Starlink satellites, sometimes almost daily, but experts say those breakups usually occur over the ocean and involve much smaller objects — making it unlikely this was the cause of the fireball seen over the Hudson Valley.
Whatever it was, some found the experience unsettling.
“It looks like a fireball. Should I be nervous? I don’t know,” Duggins said.
