It’s a bird, it’s a plane … it’s really two planes

On Sunday, Catherine Hamilton posted a very intriguing photo she took Saturday evening near Corn Hill, N.B. The photo was taken at about 7 p.m. and that became an important piece of the puzzle. Catherine wanted to know what the glowing lights in the sky were. At first, I thought perhaps meteors; after all, we were only hours away from the peak of the Orionid Meteor shower. I had a better look and it didn’t appear to be so. Another possibility was space debris re-entering our atmosphere … but again, something wasn’t right. These lights were not falling from the sky ...

I decided to check with Michael Boschat in the Halifax Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. He quickly got back to me with a very plausible explanation.

“… just earthly airplane contrails. Two planes, probably different heights, but the geometry between the observer and the planes make them look close; there really is quite a distance between them. What we’re seeing is the planes’ condensation trails illuminated by sunlight.”

I can remember receiving photos like this one in the past. Contrails are often confused with “slow-moving meteors” or other sorts of strange UFOs. These vapour or condensation trails are produced by aircraft. They look impressive, especially when visible in the west just after sunset – that’s when Catherine snapped the photo.

A contrail illuminated by the setting sun appears as a slow falling, burning, meteor-like object but it’s not falling or burning at all – it’s just jet exhaust released into the atmosphere. Still, its distance from an observer can cause it to look slow-moving.

I love the fact that so many people saw these lights in the evening sky and so many more were curious to find out what they were after seeing the photo. Look up and don’t be afraid to ask questions. After all, how else can we learn?