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Minnesotans across a 50-mile radius reported seeing a bright flash and a loud “sonic boom” in the sky over Beltrami County Monday night — and now a NASA astronomer and a local astrophysics professor are working on the case.
The US space agency analyzed footage from an airport that captured a “horizontal” line of an object across the sky as the boom rattled windows and shook homes.
A meteorite specialist believes the object was the size of a refrigerator and struck the atmosphere at speeds ranging from 30,000 to 130,000 miles per hour.
DailyMail.com spoke with Beltrami County Emergency Management, who revealed that the sonic boom was too close to Earth to be considered a meteorite – “at least not one that doesn’t cause regional devastation.”
NASA analyzed footage from an airport that captured a “horizontal” object streaking across the sky as the boom rattled windows and shook homes
DailyMail.com obtained an email from Juan Cabanilla, a local physicist studying Monday’s mysterious event, who states that the timing of the explosion indicates that the object, at least, was not an ordinary meteorite.
“I still didn’t know what it was, but I was fairly confident it couldn’t be a meteorite,” Professor Cabanella shared in the email.
Aside from local witnesses to the bright flash and loud bang, Beltrami County Emergency Management Director Chris Mueller obtained three videos.
The first was security video from a private residence in Nemours, south of Lake Bemidji.
Muller told DailyMail.com that the video “clearly shows a very bright white/blue flash above the sky”, followed by a loud bang 2.95 seconds later.
The second video, which came from Bemidji Regional Airport four miles northwest of Nemours, shows what appears to be a very fast white line running through the airport.
“This video was provided to an astronomer and a scientist from NASA,” Mueller said.
The only major video, which came from Bemidji Regional Airport four miles northwest of Nemours, shows what appears to be a very fast white line running through the airport.
“They analyzed the video frame by frame and determined that the object was too horizontal to indicate it was a meteorite,” he said. “It has not been determined whether the two videos are related.”
Beltrami County Emergency Management is also exploring the possibility of a transformer explosion in the power grid, but local utilities have yet to report such an incident days later.
Mueller has reviewed additional airport camera footage, from Monday night and at times during the day, and now suspects the object could be interpreted as a vulgar explanation.
“There’s nothing that could interfere with the video camera, like a wire or something like that that reflects the light,” the emergency management director told DailyMail.com in a phone interview.
“But what was clear was that insects were flying around,” he said.
“There were other mistakes before that.” It coincided that the timestamp for this was exactly the same time as the other reports.
By playing the video at a playback speed of one-quarter and one-tenth, Mueller estimated that the airport line was very likely an insect that could be seen by a bright light closer to the camera.
“You’ll notice it doesn’t go past the pole,” Mueller said. “So that insect probably just landed on that pole.”
Chris Mueller, Beltrami County’s emergency management director, reviewed additional airport camera footage, from Monday night and at times during the day, and now suspects the object could be a vulgar explanation. “There were insects flying around,” he said.
But while emergency management continues to pursue a terrestrial explanation, Craig Zelemin, owner of scientific collectibles company Minnesota Meteorites, believes the meteorite theory can’t be ruled out just yet. Such a meteorite could be sold for “thousands” per gram, Zelemen said
The timing of the apparent flight path seen at Bemidji Regional Airport, compared to security footage at Nemours, was another sign that the event was likely not a meteor on a fixed trajectory and acceleration — according to Mueller’s consultation with a NASA astronomer and others.
While this does not rule out controlled maneuvers of a controlled vehicle, Mueller said Beltrami County Emergency Management is not investigating the incident as a flying saucer situation.
“I don’t think it was a UFO in the alien sense, and I don’t want to appear to be one,” Mueller told DailyMail.com.
He said multiple reports of the bright flash in the sky Monday night had yet to be confirmed by evidence of a UFO, despite his best efforts.
“If there was anything airborne, the radars should have picked it up,” Mueller said. We checked with the (National) Weather Service, and they didn’t have anything on radar. They also did not detect any lightning.
“So, we’re actually leaning towards this being something that was on or near Earth.”
And the, The third videoThe “full-sky camera” stationed about 15 miles west of Bemidji saw “no sign of a meteor,” according to David Bainbridge, a local resident who operates it, strengthening the terrestrial interpretation for now.
But while emergency management continues to pursue a terrestrial explanation, Craig Zelemin, owner of scientific collectibles company Minnesota Meteorites, believes the meteorite theory can’t be ruled out just yet.
Zelmen told the local CBS affiliate WCCO-TV He believes a meteorite struck the atmosphere somewhere over Minnesota.
He told CBS it would be extremely rare if that were true.
“Minnesota has only had nine confirmed meteorites found in the state,” Zelemin said.
“Depending on the size, their prices can range from a few dollars per gram to thousands of dollars per gram,” he estimated.
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