"Glenn Johnson" wrote in message
m...
Was reported on the local Dallas news and seen by many... but no details
have surfaced yet.

2nd hand info from observer: Wed 7-7-04 about 9:10 - 9:15 PM NE to SW -
large green fireball with orange vapor trail, size of dime (or larger!) at
arm's length, cylinder shape, tail was 20-30% length of sky. simply
"vanished" - no fade or explosion.

Any ideas? She seemed to be able to describe normal meteorites and saw
space shuttle re-entry, so she had point of reference.
"never seen anything like this ever"

First, I apologize for the two empty reponses I sent a few minutes ago. My
mouse double-clicked in response to my single-click at the worst possible
time.

A search of Google news turned up a number of news reports of this widely
seen event. This one from AP contains a description by a witness in Tulsa,
OK, that defines the event as a meteor:
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=2014007

"It was just a flash in the pan. It was over in about three seconds," he
said.

A decaying satellite would have been visible far longer, on the order of one
minute, depending on how much of its track is observed.

I was fortunate to observe the decay of Raduga 33 on 2004 May 06 UTC, and
timed its passage at four points as it crossed the sky. It took 85 seconds
to travel from 17 degrees elevation almost due west to 12 deg elevation in
the south east. A meteor would have covered a similar arc in a few seconds.

Ted Molczan