When Peruvian residents saw a giant fireball careening through the sky before crashing in southeastern Peru earlier this week, they were understandably shaken. And though the Peruvian air force has since explained the event as the remains of a satellite, they were understandably skeptical.
What makes this more than your standard, cut and dry gap between civilian and government knowledge? The fact that we've seen personal footage of the fireball, too. A gentleman sent us in a video of the fireball, captured on his cell phone, that shows the object moving in inexplicable ways, far different than any falling object moves as it plummets to the ground. It's easy to understand why some are already racing to claim this is genuine evidence of an alien spacecraft.
Comment: We've seen a few video angles of this event. There wasn't anything unusual about its trajectory or rate of falling.
Meteorologist Alejandro Fonesca, from the Universidade Federal do Acre, confirmed that there were no meteorites scheduled to fall in the area, and thinks that the fireball was either an old satellite or other human-made space litter.
Comment: Meteorites are never 'scheduled' to fall. Meteor showers happen like clockwork, though there's variability with those too. Meteorites are the result of large meteors exploding/disintegrating in the upper atmosphere, and they're not usually part of the 'scheduled' showers.
Comment: For more information on the increase in fireball events, see: Michigan Meteor Event: Fireball Numbers Increased Again in 2017
And a few others that happened just this month: