SIGHTING: TREZEVANT, TN

Witness Testimony

" Orb of light appears in western sky near sunset when planes are in sky, then disappears after a few seconds.Tonight, 07/17/16, at 8 PM, I walked out onto my porch and sat down on the steps. The sky was clear, and the only thing in the sky was an airplane with its small contrail about 45 degrees up (halfway), heading on down southwest, as is usual for planes bound for the Memphis airport. A couple minutes later I got up and walked a few steps in my back yard. For whatever reason I looked back up in the sky and to my amazement saw a glowing orb of light about halfway up more due west. That first plane was a bit more south of west when I saw it. This orb was a yellowish-white in color. Its size was that of somewhat larger than what the planet Venus looks like in the night sky when it is the closet. Also, I spotted another airplane a bit more north of west with its small contrail also headed in what I assumed was toward the Memphis airport direction. This plane seemed headed for this orb, and the orb seemed to move a little going toward the plane. In my line of sight, I ! was fearful they would collide. However, the plane never veered off course and went right on. So that tells me they were not near each other; it was just my viewing of it. The time was about 8:06 PM. I immediately ran into the house to get my binoculars (7X50). But when I returned nothing was in the sky. I am very familiar with those things that could make a similar flare of light, but those seem to last longer. This appeared in those seconds after I saw the first plane and disappeared when that second plane was on away in its path. Background on me is that I am a 58 year-old female with a BS degree, major in biology and minor in physics. I consider myself an amateur astronomer, having taken astronomy in college also. I have always had a fascination with the sky, solar system, the universe all my life. In fact, I remember asking “Santa Clause” as a 6 year-old for an astronomy book and knew what it was and could read it when I got it. I don’t know what that orb of light was,! but am reporting it in case others did see it also. It almost had a burning/seething quality to it, like what the sun would look like close up. Thanks for all your good work and love hearing you on Coast2CoastAM. "