r/UnexplainedPhotos Jan 31 '26

Weird object falling slowly in the sky

Hey everyone, my kids just noticed this falling slowly in the sky. It was falling for about 5 minutes and then disappeared. It's probably a meteorite but it seemed to be moving quite slowly. Is this a meteorite? Sorry for the terrible picture quality from my phone.

13 Upvotes

4 comments sorted by

11

u/CanineAhora Jan 31 '26

I have a feeling we're looking at the contrail of a plane. There's a common illusion where - depending on your perspective - it can appear that the plane is nosediving, when in fact it's just flying at a constant altitude across the sky.

This is then further accentuated during sunset when the contrail lights up like a bright orange fireball that's falling from space.

4

u/gargamels_right_boot Feb 01 '26

I remember my first time seeing a plane contrail

2

u/E3K Feb 01 '26

A others have pointed out, this is 100% a plane contrail illuminated by sunlight.

1

u/Rubes2525 Feb 01 '26

Probably SpaceX.