SIGHTING: ABERDEEN, SOUTH DAKOTA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"Around 5:16 am i was watching the sky while enjoying the night sky, something i frequently do on cooler and clear nights. it's completely clear and there was no mist and no visible or frequent fireballs. while watching to the ne i could see a rather large object, much like a low flying plane with blue under lighting moving really slowly across the sky, traveling about the same speed across a distance apparent to the tip of my thumb held 2 feet out over a period of 25 seconds. i figured it could be a very slow, larger fireball beginning to form in the upper atmosphere but it's size was just too large to be as faint as it was. after my eyes adjusted more i began to notice the edges of the rounded object was much darker than the sky behind it and blocked out a few stars on it's path. about 5:19 am it abruptly turned slightly more east and a very faint red tail was visible, however it was not fire like with what you would see from a typical fireball and nothing a plane would cause. it was more like a thin laser trail that lingered well behind the object and slowly faded as the object went along. about 2 minutes later it made one more turn towards the north and faded away, the trail slowly fading behind it. i was honestly stunned. nothing that big should be that high up and not be burning up, and nothing would make sense that low and show those characteristics. i've noticed government planes flying in the area throughout the year at high altitudes but there is normally sound or no visible trail even over night (as i normally take time lapse exposure photos/videos and can usually pick them out) unless there was a satellite that would leave a trail, a rocket that uses non-combustible thrust, or a plane that left a laser-like trail to it i could call it nothing less than a ufo."