What do you think it was?
Charsign Raymond of Clarkston was visiting a friend’s apartment just west of downtown Stone Mountain when he saw a mysterious streak pass across the sky around 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 28. With his video camera handy, he was able to capture the streak of light.
Take a look at his video, below. What do you think? Is it a plane? Does it look extraterrestrial? Did you happen to see something like this on Nov. 28?
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© 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
66 comments Add your comment
Will
December 6th, 2010
5:30 pm
It is the light from the setting sun shining on an airplane contrail. No big deal.
james
December 6th, 2010
5:31 pm
I saw this from Dunwoody late afternoon on the 28th. I showed my kids and we thought it was from a plane.
Marty
December 6th, 2010
5:51 pm
I saw the exact same thing on November 19th in Cumming. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m not crazy and I don’t believe in aliens or government cover ups, but this was odd. It was moving too slow to be a meteor. It looked like something from a comic book. Would a contrail be vertical and tear shaped? I’m interested to hear what you find out.
JP
December 6th, 2010
5:59 pm
Will, is correct. This is just the setting sun reflecting off a contrail. If you watch the video, you can see another plane producing a contrail with the same effect enter at the right side of the screen. Very cool effect. But it is one made by mother nature, not aliens.
stacey
December 6th, 2010
6:14 pm
Specifically just a Boeing 747 jet with a contrail (ice that forms from exhaust from engines) reflecting the sun orange appearance as it sets over the horizon.
ken USAF civi
December 6th, 2010
6:32 pm
okay, as strange and bizarre as all this sounds, as my fiance went outside on her way to class, she pulled me outside to show me something. When we walked behind our complex (which was the direction of the sunset), she pointed out that exact image from the picture above. I could only look in ahh as this happened right in front of us. It happened around 5:15 p.m. (central time) and might I add I live in north Louisiana. I instantly googled “Falling object in the sky december 6, 2010.” I will continue to search the REAL cause and check this post frequently.
TGW
December 6th, 2010
7:16 pm
My two boys and I saw the same thing around 2 weeks ago around the same time on Calloway Road about a mile from Austell Road in the south west sky in Cobb County. It looked like a fireball.We assumed it was a plane.
Christina
December 6th, 2010
8:24 pm
I have pictures of the same thing! I live in Jefferson! I have images from a Nikon D60 close up… I have pics of an aircraft flying nearby and whatever is falling is not an aircraft.
Relax Conspiracy Nuts!
December 6th, 2010
8:37 pm
Will is correct. Why is this even news? It’s a contrail reflecting the sun.
Slow news day, huh?
George P Burdell
December 6th, 2010
10:27 pm
Why was this published? To give ignorant people their 15 minutes of fame?
j mogan
December 7th, 2010
12:08 am
man you pple who think like we by are selft if you know what i know it s a no no.get ready pple pray only GOD CAN SAVE YOU
Steve
December 7th, 2010
4:24 am
Contrail … (duh)
jokurone
December 7th, 2010
8:22 am
I also saw this object in the sky as I was driving home from work. I leave my office at 5 PM and notice it in the sky. It appeared to be an aircraft at first but the more I observed the contrails were much larger and shorter than other obvious aircraft in the sky below. It was traveling in a southwest direction and remained insight for more than minutes. I believe it was of extrterestial origin such as a large meteorite skimming the outer atmosphere.
Arch Stanton
December 7th, 2010
8:34 am
Is this all it takes to get your name in the news?
Smince
December 7th, 2010
8:41 am
I think Mike Judge portrayed the future dead-on with the movie “Idiocracy”.
Dave
December 7th, 2010
9:00 am
At 5:30 PM, this is the sun hitting the contrail of a high flying aircraft.
James Taylor
December 7th, 2010
9:06 am
you people need to get a clue its the sun reflecting off of the con trail of a plane..
Rick Williamson
December 7th, 2010
9:14 am
As an inactive private pilot, aviation enthusiast, and former Civil Air Patrol Public Affairs Officer, I find nothing mysterious about the “twin fireballs” mentioned in the article or shown in the video. It appears to be nothing more than the exhaust condensation trail (contrail) from a twin engine jet.
At about the six second mark, you see an aircraft approaching from the left. It is likely en route to PDK Airport.
Beginning around the 13-14 second mark, you can see another aircraft approaching from the right. The single plume is roughly the same color, though it is much longer.
Odds are, the plane coming in from the right is at a much higher altitude, allowing the exhaust to stay in vapor form for much longer, and appear as a single contrail, rather than two.
The “mystery fireball” is likely from a plane that is much lower, allowing the twin contrails to be seen as they are created, but not stay in vapor form long enough for them to blend into one single trail.
L. Ron Hubbard
December 7th, 2010
9:18 am
Duh, it’s Xenu stopping off on Earth to pick up my friend Tom Cruise.
John
December 7th, 2010
9:22 am
What an embarrassment that the folks at Atlanta’s only daily newspaper not only think this is news, but also invite speculation from rubes through the teaser “What do you think it was?” Is this Atlanta in the 21st century or Dogpatch?
CanThinkForMyself
December 7th, 2010
9:22 am
How easily some people buy the “contrail” explanation for every odd light in the sky. The government is happy about your ignorance.
packer fan
December 7th, 2010
9:23 am
It is the Colquitt County Packers!
DC
December 7th, 2010
9:30 am
I didn’t see this myself, but the picture reminds me of when space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry in 2003. I suspect some object hitting the atmosphere at high altitude, which would explain the apparent “slow” movement. It could be a meteor or a piece of space junk. NASA tracks thousands of objects in orbit, ranging from large satellites to lost astronaut gloves to nuts and bolts.
RedandBlack
December 7th, 2010
9:35 am
Anyone who can really utilize their eyes can plainly see that it is a weather balloon distorted in view by fumes of swamp gas.
Dennis
December 7th, 2010
9:40 am
Its Obama’s heathcare plan shot down by congress!!!
gs
December 7th, 2010
9:42 am
it was UGA football program
Uncle Joe
December 7th, 2010
9:43 am
Will’s got it. See this kinda thing fairly frequently. Much to do about nothing. Fireballs don’t look like this.
George W
December 7th, 2010
9:44 am
Ok guys, I am a pilot and this is NOT a contrail from another plane. It appears to be some sort of comet or debris falling from the atmosphere.
The astro-chemist
December 7th, 2010
9:45 am
As an astro-chemist, the contrail explanation is untenable because contrails are thinner and longer with no hue of blue light in them due to the atmospheric height of halogen molecules and their various rates of disintegration at 0.6 seconds per unit. MIT has a secret book on mysterious lights in our skies but are under government order to keep them secret. Ten years ago, one of the brightest scientists in the nation was about to go public and was ordered to remain silent. Folks, contrails were invented by government as a cover-up. In most cases they are chemically impossible.
Jeff M.
December 7th, 2010
9:49 am
Oh, this is embarrassing. It’s easily and obviously a jet’s contrail reflecting the setting sun. Not “falling”, but flying away from the point of view and creating an optical illusion. If you enlarge it even a little bit, you can even make out the image of the jet. Double duh. AJC should take this down as soon as possible, before the whole country is laughing.
Uncle Joe
December 7th, 2010
9:50 am
What an embarrassment that the folks at Atlanta’s only daily newspaper not only think this is news, but also bait comment from rubes who can’t resist referring to other commenters as rubes. I know you see this John. Just having a little fun, your point is well taken.
DC
December 7th, 2010
9:54 am
Okay, I’ve changed my mind. Comments by Dave, James and particularly Rick Williamson had not posted at the time of my initial comment. I like your explanation better than my own speculation. Given how a second, clearly identifiable contrail towards the end of the clip is about the same brightness and color, yes, it sure looks like sunlight reflecting off a contrail.
Eric
December 7th, 2010
10:03 am
I also agree with Will. This is an airliner at high altitude with sunlight reflecting off of its contrail. ANY airline pilot and any REAL pilot will say the same thing. You will notice that during the video another contrail appears from the right and moves to the left. Same thing. When the sun is low on the horizon, it will cause high altitude clouds, contrails (all ice crystals) to reflect the sunlight and appear to be illuminated. However, it is only reflected light from a passing airliner contrail as stated before. It surprises me that an ‘Astro-chemist’ can’t figure this one out.
Candler Park
December 7th, 2010
10:12 am
It’s an aircraft contrail (two in fact) lit up by the setting sun, nothing more.
Fidlin1
December 7th, 2010
10:13 am
That big, I’d have to say,Blue Ice from Air Force 1.
Ackshun
December 7th, 2010
10:38 am
Not sure what it was. Contrail theory seems likely but it also could have been the X37B experimental space plane. It has been in orbit for months now but was brought home last week. It landed at Vandenberg AFB in California (which would explain the southwesterly track) and even though the arrival time was reported as 115 am. They could have been mistaken. After all the plane is top secret.
BDP
December 7th, 2010
10:49 am
Didn’t California have the same thing that they thought was a missile launch? It’s just a plane contrail catching the orange/red light that is more prominent during the setting of the sun. And you have a second plane going horizontal to prove that point.
Still Makes a Great Photo
December 7th, 2010
10:49 am
If it’s a contrail, what was the loud boom heard afterwards? How fast was this low-flying plane going? Surely the FAA would know.
Believer
December 7th, 2010
10:56 am
Dummies! It’s Santa on a practice run!
Bubba
December 7th, 2010
10:56 am
It is clearly a contrail highlighted by the setting sun.
Rick W., you are incorrect about your altitude assumption. The contrail in question is created by a 4 engine plane, most likely a 747 (an Airbus 340’s engines are farther apart and you can usually see 4 distinct streams). I am an airline pilot and have been a few thousand feet horizontally (at a different altitude of course) from 747s producing a contrail identical to this one.
mary
December 7th, 2010
11:01 am
“Ten years ago, one of the brightest scientists in the nation was about to go public and was ordered to remain silent. Folks, contrails were invented by government as a cover-up. In most cases they are chemically impossible.”
*guffaw*
Dollarbill
December 7th, 2010
11:03 am
Airplanes in the sky for 200.00 please. The answer is – name one southern city where a south bound Boeing 737 and an east bound MD-88 can be confused as a fireball. What is Atlanta? Correct.
Airplanes in the sky for 300.00 please. Name this newspaper that borrowed a page from Rupert Murdock and posted a video for sensationalism. What is the AJC? Correct.
Jane Quatam
December 7th, 2010
11:15 am
I think the contrail excuse is untenable. If it were a contrail, this phenomena would be manifesting itself worldwide and daily, which to my knowledge it is not. Since I have never seen this type of behaviour in a contrail despite having lived both in a variety of areas of the country and distances of a few miles to a few hundred miles from airports and nearly always watching the daily sunsets, which I enjoy greatly, I must say the contrail excuse is likely an attempt at pseudo scientific hogwash.
What fear lurks in the hearts of men that they must immediately trivialize that which they do not understand by pretending it is something it is not?
It appears to be something burning in the atmosphere, likely a meteor, but also likely that we will never know for certain what it was.
Rudolph
December 7th, 2010
11:17 am
Santa’s sleigh is having mechanical problems.
Not Chicken Little
December 7th, 2010
11:29 am
It’s called a “jet airplane”. I can’t believe this made headlines. And someone really needs lessons on how to take a video…
THE X-FILES
December 7th, 2010
11:41 am
Ancient Mayans warning of upcoming year 2012.
Wes
December 7th, 2010
11:43 am
Why is this news? It’s the sun setting on a jet contrail.
citoldU
December 7th, 2010
11:47 am
government crop-duster
?
December 7th, 2010
11:49 am
seeingMy Momma was right!
December 7th, 2010
11:53 am
It was and immigrant alien coming in his ship