What’s this bright light appearing in the Texas sky?

Kelsey Thompson
·2 min read
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BUDA, Texas (KXAN) — One KXAN viewer captured a curious phenomenon happening in the night sky near her home in Buda.

Kristen Cannon shared footage with KXAN of a bright light passing through the sky in front of her house early Monday morning. Timecodes from her home’s security camera showed the light drifting through the sky for roughly an hour, from around 2:50 a.m. to 3:50 a.m.

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The American Meteor Society (AMS) helps track meteors and fireballs spotted globally, with viewers able to report certain phenomena online. No fireballs had been reported in Texas on Monday, records showed.

Even still, experts with AMS said fireballs — or extremely bright meteors — usually only last a few seconds. Some bright light sources are contrails, or linear clouds etched in the sky due to high-altitude airplanes.

KXAN checked with Firefly Aerospace to see if they were responsible for the bright orb. Firefly officials said they weren’t, adding tests aren’t performed at night due to community feedback and launches mainly happen in California.

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However, Cannon told KXAN in a follow-up email previous footage from early Sunday morning displayed the same bright light, only about an hour earlier than Monday morning’s phenomenon.

There is a European Space Agency satellite poised to reenter into Earth’s atmosphere, but that isn’t set to happen until Wednesday morning.

“As the spacecraft’s reentry is ‘natural’, without the possibility to perform maneuvers, it is impossible to know exactly where and when it will reenter the atmosphere and begin to burn up,” the agency said in a statement, per CNN reporting.

It’s uncertain what the exact source is, but Cannon said it’s still been fascinating to catch on camera.

“Looks too big to be a star, too slow to be a plane? Thought it was interesting!” she said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to KXAN it wasn’t aware of “any unusual aircraft activity in the Buda, Texas area the morning of Feb. 19.”

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