An account in France, France

On September 25, 2008 at around 11 p.m., numerous witnesses located in Southern Brittany, or in the South of France, saw a spectacular luminous phenomenon cross the sky from the Northeast to the Southwest. Many of them reported their observation to the press, to GEIPAN by telephone (5), by email (5), or by questionnaire (3); some went to make a statement to the gendarmerie, which then forwarded 3 testimonies to GEIPAN. The multiple witnesses describe a very powerful luminous phenomenon that crossed the sky in 1 to 4 minutes (for most) heading toward the South or Southwest (see the investigation report). We have gathered in a single table (attached) the essential elements of the observations. One can note a great variability in these elements, as much in the color of the phenomenon (white, yellow, orange, red) as in the shape (ball, point, plane-rocket, and even rectangle), the estimated distance (300 m to 8 km), the direction of travel (mostly North to South, or Northwest to Southeast, West to East), and the duration of observation (mostly less than 1 minute, a few cases of more than 2 minutes). Nevertheless, the simultaneity of the phenomenon, and a few common characteristics such as fragmentation into more than 10 elements leave little doubt about the single origin of the phenomenon (except possibly for the case of Pontoise). Experience shows that such variability is frequent for all mass observations; one must also take into account the fact that all the witnesses, far apart from each other, did not see the phenomenon from the same angle, nor over the same duration: this leads to a completely explainable variability in the witnesses' accounts. In this kind of case, it is the multiplicity of witnesses at the same moment and their significant geographic separation that proves the phenomenon was very powerful and at high altitude: the hypothesis of atmospheric reentry becomes certain. The nature of the reentering object is harder to prove: in this case, due to the Southeast orientation of the phenomenon, and its duration of less than or more than one minute, the hypothesis of the atmospheric reentry of a satellite debris is much more likely than that of a natural meteoroid reentry. Information from American space surveillance confirmed this hypothesis. This case is therefore classified as "A": atmospheric reentry of a third stage of a PROTON launch vehicle.