Do meteors change direction during re-entry?

Question

Found an interesting Brazilian video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuReliyduI

The video has the appearance of being genuine, but I'm not sure about how a meteor would change direction during re-entry. Is there anyone available who knows anything about physics to debunk this UFO?

Explanations in hard science would be preferable to "yeah, it's definitely a UFO" or "it's totally not a UFO" responses. The best explanation wins! (I'll be running the possible explanations past a friend who's an astrophysicist, just to keep people on their toes and make it realistic... and he says no, meteors don't change direction during re-entry, and I haven't shown him the video yet.)

Answer 1

I would say it is not a meteor.

It would not take that long to descend and it would not remain illuminated for very long once it passed our atmosphere - if it was a meteor.

I suspect whatever it was, had a fire retardent as part of its makeup because it took a very long time for it to disintergrate. It would have to be an object comprised of light weight material for it to change direction so that also compells me to believe it is not a meteor.

I suspect it is a man made craft or satellite.

New note:

In this case it is an "Unidentified Burning Object" so anything could be applicable -UFO -Satellite-Space craft. There were some situations where the government in another country had to blow up their sattelite because it was defective -

Anything is possible :0)

Answer 2

Good video but I would say a hoax. My instinct tells me that it smells of a setup although I must admit I can't see why anyone would go to such trouble to stage it.

I agree with your Astrophysicist friend and other videos I have seen of napalm burning appear much the same. As for not seeing any reflection the helicopter could have been so far above the object that its reflection would not be seen. Don't forget that there are super strong and very thin cables commercially available that could allow one to dangle an object for thousand of feet under a plane or helicopter. It could also be some type of remote controlled drone but unless remains can be found who knows.

To me, the mystery is not that it is extraterrestrial, it is why would anyone bother to do such a stunt as it wouldn't be easy to get the gear together especially the napalm.  

Answer 3

Well lets see Red..That vid was cool. I think that perhaps pieces of the meteor broke off and went into different directions, as some of the pieces ran out of fire and just fell to the ground maybe. That video stumped me, my first reaction was a firework again but that was way to d**n big to be a firework. Anywho, nice catch!

d**n now I'm so confused...lol...Napalm why would that even happen? Perhaps some experiment that we citiznes are not supposed to know about. Here's a website about Napalm:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/s...

But still very interesting!

Answer 4

Intresting video, I agree with CIA and am absolutely stumped.

EDIT: Maybe they are just not on their computers 24 hours a day.

Answer 5

I'm not an astrophysicist but I know that meteors don't fly like that.  However if you listen carefully you can hear the helicopter over that annoying whine.  Its a cool vid though should be on the SiFi channel.

Yeah I like the helicopter explanation.

Answer 6

So why would Napalm be dropped from the sky and lit?

If a forest area were to be burned for crops or housing, Napalm would be more effective at lower altitudes.

That is a strange video.

And I even looked around for crash sites of satellites and came up empty handed.

What ever it was, it had a fuel source, almost like phosphorus mixed with water.

Then I went to find the chemical compounds of meteorites and found everything but the information I was inquiring.

I wonder if any of the burnt debris had been located to verify what it was?