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The article below was published in the daily newspaper Sud Ouest, France, on November 9, 1990.
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The official explanations given to explain the phenomenon of Monday evening do not satisfy Jean-Pierre Petit who is passionate about the study of UFOs
Collected by Germain Chambost
Director of research at CNRS, the National Center for Scientific Research, a specialist in general relativity, Jean-Pierre Petit has long been fascinated by UFOs. He has just published a book on this topic (1). A book that tickles a lot of his scientific colleagues, Jean-Pierre Petit does not hesitate to question very freely on this kind of phenomena. The last one, in fact, is not designed to provide indubitable answers to his questions.
- "We are told that it could be a satellite entering the atmosphere. Why not. But the return of a machine of this type does not last three minutes in a row, like Monday night. Or, we should consider the return of several satellites in single file, which is highly unlikely. Especially since the phenomenon occurred from east to west, while the satellites turn and fall from west to east. Finally, their return is never fortuitous, they are tracked.
And no subsequent announcement has even been made by the bodies responsible for monitoring such devices.
- Are we not talking about meteorites, especially among Germans? Including among your fellow astronomers-
Here again, same thought. Some astronomer friends have told me that they have seen meteorite returns, but the phenomenon lasts for ten seconds at most, and the duration of this one surprises them. In addition, it has been visible from Barcelona to Munich and Rome to London, for thousands of kilometers. However, meteorites "burn" from 40 kilometers above sea level.
With the curvature of the earth, it is scarcely possible that they could be seen to burn away from such distant points. The remark is worth more if it is estimated that the meteor broke into pieces. We could not have seen these from so far. And they would not have been lined up, as witnesses of very good faith have certified to me that they saw the bright "dots" in the sky that night. So, the least we can say is: weird, weird... "
(1) Jean-Pierre Petit, "Enqu te sur les OVNIS", Albin Michel publisher.
Note: this is obviously about the atmospheric re-entry of Russian rocket debris on November 5, 1990. Jean-Pierre Petit was right, it was not a meteor. It was also not a satellite reentry. But it was the reentry of rocket debris.
