OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — Residents of West Michigan witnessed a breathtaking spectacle late Tuesday night as bright streaks illuminated the sky. As onlookers pulled out their phones to capture photos and videos, a question floated to the forefront: What were they actually seeing?
The unusual sighting, which lasted for nearly a minute, was captured on video by multiple eyewitnesses, including Hope College senior William Lamm.
“It was around 30 seconds of this, like, streaky, fiery thing that kind of just went across the sky and then disappeared behind the tree, house line,” Lamm described.
The phenomenon was spotted in various parts of Ottawa County around 10:02 p.m.
According to reports submitted to the International Meteor Organization (IMO), it was also visible in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Initially, many who saw it speculated that it might be a meteor shower or a comet.
However, experts from the International Meteor Organization (IMO) have confirmed that the sighting was not a “natural fireball meteor,” but space debris reentering the Earth's atmosphere.
According to Mike Hankey, an IMO representative, the slow speed, long duration and massive fragmentation of the object suggest it was likely a satellite or rocket part.
“We got a lot of videos of this event and it is obvious when you look at them,” Hankey told FOX 17.
“A natural meteor usually can't last much longer than 10 seconds and once in a rare while it could go 20. These events often last 60 seconds or longer.”
It is an occurrence that people like Jack Daleske, planetarium manager at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, have been keeping tabs on.
“I want us to go to space, but there are consequences for that," said Daleske.
“It hasn't been a huge problem lately, but the more and more stuff we put up there, that's just going to be a natural result and a natural consequence of that.”
Daleske explained that when space debris collides with the atmosphere, it transfers momentum and energy, causing it to heat up and vaporize quickly.
This process can create the bright streaks and fragmentation observed on Tuesday night.
The IMO believes the debris was likely from a SpaceX reentry.
While January and February are not typically peak months for meteor sightings, Daleske notes that it's an excellent time to observe other planets, such as Saturn, Jupiter and Mars.
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