PLEUDIHEN-SUR-RANCE (22) 22.12.2024

The two witnesses of this case observed, from their terrace, in the Pleudihen-sur-Rance sky (22), a luminous phenomenon: a large incandescent sphere, of orange-yellow colour, accompanied by a probably yellow trail. The object follows a curve from west to east, reaches about 75° of elevation, then disappears behind trees after five seconds of observation. No noise is perceived. Its apparent size is estimated to be that of a ping-pong ball held at arm's length. The witnesses hypothesize that it could be a falling meteorite or an object in combustion penetrating the atmosphere: "a meteorite falling on earth or a burning object falling on earth." This observation case has medium evidential quality* (only T1 completed a GEIPAN Technical Questionnaire, lack of photo or UAP video) and a low level of strangeness. *according to the GEIPAN criteria, evidential quality is the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively established. GEIPAN identifies the sighting as a fireball caused by atmospheric entry, based on the following: - The FIREBALL IMO (International meteor organization) site, which records natural and artificial atmospheric entries, recorded at the time of the observation of the UAP, a total of 73 testimonies from witnesses located in a vast geographical area including southern England, as well as the west-central and western France, covering the region where our witnesses are located. See the event on the IMO site. It can be noted that one of the 73 witnesses is in the same municipality as the one of the observation of the UAP (Annex 1). Although some witnesses report divergent visual characteristics, particularly with respect to colour, the majority describe an object corresponding to the characteristics of the unidentified aerial phenomenon, namely a particularly bright object, with a colour close to yellow, leaving a trail, all observed over a short period of time. - The estimate of the trajectory orientation varies from one witness to another, but is generally consistent for some, who describe a path oriented from west to east. The trajectory automatically calculated by the site of the IMO (southwest to northeast) is also broadly consistent with that of the UAP (Annex 2). Given the very short visibility of this atmospheric re-entry, GEIPAN considers a natural object producing a fireball more likely than an artificial object. The GEIPAN classifies this case as "A": observation of the atmospheric entry of a fireball.