NUFORC Sighting 136896

Occurred: 2017-10-20 21:20 Local
Reported: 2017-10-21 10:59 Pacific
Duration: 5-10 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Orange Park, FL, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Bright Blue-green object silently flies very fast across sky near Orange Park FL

We were standing on our patio between 21:15-21:30 last night. We saw a blue-green moving across the sky from east southeast to west southwest. The sky was clear. There were 2 airplanes visible in the sky at the time, which is normal, since we live close to NAS-JAX.

The object looked very similar to a bright star, but slightly larger and brighter. It did not blink and did not appear to twinkle at all. It was larger and brighter than any stars visible at the time. I would estimate that from our point of view, it appeared similar in size and brightness to the north star. We did not hear any sound.

It moved very quickly but did appear to slow down for a few seconds one time before resuming its previous speed. The object stayed on the same path making no turns for the full time it was in view. We were able to see the object very clearly from the time it appeared on the horizon to our east all the way through its path to the western horizon, until it became too faint in the distance.

We have a lot of military and civilian aircraft traffic in our area and are very aware of how they behave in the sky. Any aircraft that was close enough for its lights to appear this size and brightness would have been very easy to hear. The speed of the object could not be matched by any of the fighter jets that we commonly see. Any aircraft capable of this speed would not have been silent if it were flying low enough, and close enough, to appear this size in she night sky. There were no additional lights as would be expected on a plane or helicopter either. An object with this speed and brightness flying high enough to be inaudible would have to be absolutely massive.

I thought it may have been the International Space Station but that was supposedly only visible during a 2 minute window over 2 hrs. before this sighting and would have been moving in the opposite direction according to the NASA website.

Posted 2017-11-03