What Was That Fireball Streaking Across The Sky? Warwick, Rhode Island

Peter Phipps
Providence Journal

There's a lively discussion on the Web about this video of a burning object streaking across the Warwick sky.

 

A providencejournal.com reader says a co-worker shot the video just before 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 13.

One commenter on YouTube declared it a fake. Others had various explanations.

Ian Dell Antonio, a Brown physics professor contacted by providencejournal.com, had two theories:

" A plane. At 4:40, the sun would have set, but the plane would still be in sunlight -- as a result, the exhaust trail would be lit much brighter than the sky, and look like a fireball (the shape of the trail also would match -- you see two exhausts and that is typical of planes with wing
engines, whereas a hunk of rock would not give you two trails).

"A much smaller object much closer ... that's on fire. I'm more skeptical of this, although it looks like the trail passes in front of the telephone
wires, because the angular speed is too slow for something falling, so it would have to be floating or actively flying (model airplane?) as I said, I think it's not as likely as the plane explanation..." 

Source - http://www.sott.net/article/254856-What-was-that-fireball-streaking-across-the-sky-Warwick-Rhode-Island-13-December-2012