17 February,2009 07:26 AM IST | | AP
A fireball that blazed across the Texas sky and sparked numerous weekend calls to authorities was probably a meteor and not falling space junk from last week's satellite collision, officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday that the fireball appeared to be a natural phenomenon, and a University of North Texas astronomer said more specifically that it was probably a pickup truck-sized meteor with the consistency of concrete.
The object was visible Sunday morning from much of the state. In Central Texas, the Williamson County sheriff's office received so many emergency calls that it sent a helicopter aloft to look for debris from a plane crash.
The FAA backed off its weekend statement that the fireball possibly was caused by falling debris from colliding satellites plummeting into the atmosphere.
That assertion was rebuffed Sunday when a major with US Strategic Command said there was no connection to the sightings and last week's collision of satellites from the US and Russia.
The FAA had a weekend warning out to pilots to watch out for satellite debris but rescinded the warning Sunday. FAA spokesman Roland Herwig acknowledged yesterday that "we are no longer saying it might have been satellite debris."
