Status: Explained — the widely seen fireball is attributed to a meteor, with a Soviet satellite re-entry also suggested. The “crash” story remains disputed.
Credit: Ryright · Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons) · Source
On the evening of December 9, 1965, a brilliant fireball was seen over a wide area from the Great Lakes to Pennsylvania, with reports from six U.S. states and Canada. The Federal Aviation Administration logged reports from pilots, and a seismograph near Detroit recorded shock waves as it passed. Around Pittsburgh, some people heard sonic booms.
In Kecksburg, a village about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, residents reported blue smoke, a thump and something crashing in the woods. The Greensburg Tribune-Review said the area was roped off, but a later edition ran the headline “Searchers Fail to Find Object.” State troopers and Air Force personnel who searched the woods reported finding “absolutely nothing.” Over the decades, some locals described an acorn-shaped object and said the military removed it.
Astronomers at the time called the fireball a meteor. In 2005, NASA said experts had examined metal fragments and found they came from a Soviet satellite, but the original records could not be found. Others have pointed to debris from the Soviet probe Kosmos 96. A Sky & Telescope analysis concluded the fireball's path ended in or near western Lake Erie. The village keeps the legend alive today with a full-size replica of the acorn.
Sources: Wikipedia: Kecksburg UFO incident
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