ASTROIDS, FIREBALLS, 2023 BU
ARE THE WATCHERS WATCHING?
On the evening of January 29, I sat on my deck overlooking Aransas, Bay, Rockport. I enjoy a broad view toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Over my many years on this planet this time around, I’ve spent a lot of enjoyable time sky watching.
Close to 7:30 PM I saw on this clear night the most beautiful aerial display I’ve ever seen. Three bright fireballs with long fire tails trailing behind came streaking horizontally southwest toward northeast, my right to left.
I watched them for about five seconds, an unusually long time for a fireball to live. I didn’t see a burn out. They just flew far enough to the north that I lost sight of them, as they maintained steady speed, formation, and brightness.
I was so awed by the surprising beauty before me that, of course, I failed to pick up my i-Phone camera, expecting any second they would burn out. They didn’t. They were the largest fireballs I’ve observed.
I quickly thought, “Much more than meteors, not UFOs, eight of which I’ve seen in category ‘First Kind’. None I’ve seen left a fire trail. It is very rare that they do. Not likely space debris, moving horizontally and lasting that long. So, what were they.”
First thought, probably a decent size astroid grazing our upper atmosphere and breaking into three pieces of virtually equal size. I wondered how I missed the news from JPL that this was was about to happen?
Next day I read a couple of vague and somewhat contradictory reports about 2023 BU, a delivery truck sized astroid that was due to cross South America between January 26 and 29, only 2000 miles from earth. It was just discovered, supposedly, on Jan. 26.
I quickly decided, “That is what I saw.” Too much of a coincidence to be otherwise, but where are the reports of its grazing our atmosphere, closer than the 2000 mile distance from earth that was anticipated.
Although it was expected to be a remarkably close flyby
Inside the orbits of some of our artificial satellites, it was projected to fly past us.
It didn’t. It had to burn up as it flew through our atmosphere. The fires were bright and intense. Having broken into three pieces, I see no way any of 2023 BU survived its close encounter with earth.
So, where are the JPL reports about this close call, about its dramatic, beautiful display as it died?
I’ve seen nothing in the news about anything I observed and am reporting here. Have you?
I wrote the lead scientist for astroid observation at JPL.
No response. I’m sure he is a busy guy. But, perhaps he doesn’t want to address the fact they failed to properly monitor this dramatic event, and were off on their predictions of when and where it would arrive.
Unless I’ve missed something in the news from JPL, I find this disturbing. If our future on this planet is in the hands of these folks, we may be in deep s…, ah, trouble.
We have seen how regularly astroids sneak up on us. Even if spotted at all, it is often only hours before passing us.
I can only hope our guardian observers saw and know what I know and for some reason failed to report it fully, or I just missed the report.
Anyone know more about this than I do? I hope so. Otherwise, enjoyable as this remarkable sighting was, a once in a life time experience, I can’t help but be disturbed that our astroid watchers don’t seem to be watching very well.
That may be too harsh a judgment. For me, this was wonderfully exciting. Since the astroid was relatively small and seemed to pose no threat and did no damage, JPL may just rather ignore their apparent failure to properly observe this event to its conclusion.
Or, did I miss something in the news?