posted on Feb, 18 2013 @ 07:49 PM
Re: Green 'space' slime baffles nature experts
Hello. As a skeptical person who holds a science degree, I ordinarily wouldn't buy-into a headline like this, (cyanobacteria, slime mold, or
regurgitated toad guts all sound like perfectly plausible explanations to me,)
However, I have had a personal experience that makes it tough for me to deny that there might be some degree of truth to this topic of 'space/meteor
slime' in-general. Dear ATS readers and posters, I am a new member and this is my first post.
I have no hard evidence or photos I can share with you, only a very clear and distinct memory of what I saw. Below I will relate my experience
objectively with as little speculation and with as much detail as I can recall in the few years since this happened.
On November 5, 2009 in the time between 5:10-5:15pm PST (I must grudgingly credit FB timeline for allowing me to go back and recover the date/time),
I witnessed perhaps this very stuff falling in the wake of a similar 'ball of fire'-type event in the skies above CA bay area (not unlike the
fireball seen just a few days ago above SF the night after the event in Russia). I've seen a few daytime meteorite falls in my life, but the
appearance of what I can only describe succinctly as "clumps of spiderwebby-goo" falling through the sky for about 20 seconds in the minutes
following a meteorite fireball will always be strongly implanted in my memory.
At the time I was a student at UC Santa Cruz and on-duty lifeguarding at the campus pool. From my vantage point I had an unobstructed view over the
monterey bay. It was a clear, warm afternoon with a few whispy cirrus clouds very high in the sky. (anyone who has lived in the SC area knows that we
experience an 'indian summer' with very pleasant weather lasting far into autumn… whereas it's usually quite foggy during most of summer
itself!)
An extremely bright light-source approaching from southeast caught my eye. Willfully neglecting my job duties, I took my eyes off the pool and
watched this object as it broke through the clouds and appeared to double in brightness roughly over the moss landing power plant (a distance of about
25 miles). I called out to my coworkers, who came out of the shack and also witnessed the fireball. Over the course of 10(ish) seconds, It zoomed by
from left to right "directly infront of us" (OK, that's a very relative statement-- I would guess it was within a radius of 10-15 miles of our
position, it seemed VERY close) on a shallow parabolic trajectory at an altitude (again, guessing here) somewhere between 10-20,000 feet.. clearly
below the cloud layer. It left a clearly visible spirally vapor trail in its wake, but that dissipated after just a few minutes. There was a small
sonic boom about 15 seconds after it passed by (sounded like large reverberating whip-crack, a little startling, but nothing like what's heard in the
russian meteorite videos). I presume that the meteor burned up somewhere over the pacific ocean-- it was extremely bright (like a welding torch-- it
left a strong 'after-image' on my retinae, like when one glances at the sun), but not very large.
We're all like "cool! a meteor! I've never seen one during the daytime before, and so low in the sky!" An interesting/unlikely thing to see on
any given day, but certainly not incredible or unheard of.
Then,
A few minutes after it had passed, as the last whisps of vapor trail were disappearing, I saw them--
Half-a-dozen or so 'blobs' or 'clumps' or 'knots' of some grey-white semi-translucent "stringy/whispy/jelly-like substance" rolling/churning
along, moving fast (relatively) across my field of view. They moved as a group, not perfectly-spaced but did appear to be in roughly a straight line.
They were not obvious to spot at first and, as my attention had shifted back to the water and pool deck, I did not see them until they were directly
infront/above me ( right around the horizon line, close-in, must have been less than a mile away.)
I was speechless, and stood up on the stand trying in vain to get a better view. I could tell they were traveling at a slower speed and much lower
in the sky/ closer to me compared to the fireball--- A few hundred to a thousand feet up perhaps, with a speed I would guesstimate of a few
meters-per-second---- not nearly meteorite-fast, but still quite 'fast': much MUCH faster than any air current could have possibly been blowing an
object, vapor cloud, group of seedpods, fluid, or whatever they were.
As I watched them in silence following a similar trajectory as the fireball (but lower altitude), I could not say whether they were solid objects,
puffs of vapor or smoke (believe me there're plenty of those around the campus…), or a fluid of some sort. For a few seconds I recall they
distinctly resembled blobs of "clear jello" with large air pockets inside. But "churning clumps of gooey-spiderwebs" is the best visual analogy I
can give.