Fireballs spark UFO speculation

Numerous sightings of massive fireballs in the skies over Germany last week have led to an upsurge in reports of UFOs, but scientists believe the cause could be a bizarre annual meteor blitz.

Fireballs have been reported elsewhere in the world and may also be due to the fact that the Earth is now orbiting through a swarm of space debris, according to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administrationีs (NASA) website.

Many people in Germany have noticed the fireballs, said Werner Walter, an amateur astronomer in Mannheim who runs a website on unexplained astronomical phenomena and a hotline for reports on unidentified flying objects (UFOs).

'The last reported sighting was in a corridor near the border of the Netherlands,ำ he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

'We have received at least 15 e-mails and phone calls from people reporting these fireballs,ำ he said. าSome people said it looks like something out of a science-fiction horror film."

In addition to a possible meteor streak, Walter said, amateur and professional astronomers were considering the possibility that the blitz was the result of a าfalling satellite or UFOsำ.

NASAีs science website (http://science.nasa.gov) mentions reports of recent fireball sightings in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, North Ireland and Japan. It includes images of the fireballs, which one man likened to a spotlight.

Walter described them as าsuper-large, coloured fireballs that shoot with the speed of lightning through the skyำ.

However, the NASA website quotes meteor expert David Asher from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland as saying that people าare probably seeing the Taurid meteor showerำ.

Taurids are meteors that shoot out of the constellation Taurus. The shower peaks at the end of October and early November.