McLENNAN County (February 19, 2009)-Astronomers from North Texas who were in McLennan County Wednesday afternoon found two samples of fresh material the "size of large pecans" from the meteor that alarmed numerous residents when it streaked across the Texas sky on Sunday morning.

The meteorites were found around 5 p.m. Wednesday in a pasture between West and Penelope, discovered by two University of North Texas astronomers who were aided by deputies of the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office.

University of North Texas observatory manager Preston Starr and UNT's director of the planetarium and astronomy lab program Ron DiIulio said they had been searching in the pasture since about 3 a.m.

DiLulio described the meteorites by saying the pieces are about the size of large pecans with a crust that is black like charcoal.

The pair of astronomers believe there are larger pieces of the meteor still to be found.

MONDAY
The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday the fireball that streaked across the Central Texas sky Sunday, producing a series of window-rattling sonic booms, was a natural phenomenon and not debris from two satellites that collided in orbit last week.

Astronomer Preston Starr, the observatory manager at the University of North Texas, said he thinks the object was a carbonaceous meteor "about the size of a pickup truck."

He said it was a "slow mover" and probably has the consistency of concrete.

Starr said objects as large as the one spotted Sunday enter the atmosphere about eight or 10 times a year.

The Texas Meteorite Lab, which investigates such incidents worldwide, said, however, that it’s rare during daylight hours for a fireball to be visible.

The FAA Monday backed off its weekend claim that the fireball was caused by falling debris from colliding satellites plummeting into earth's atmosphere.

Earlier Monday, the U.S. Strategic Command said that the source of the fireballs and sonic booms wasn’t debris from the satellites.

The FAA notified pilots on Saturday to be aware of possible space debris after the collision Tuesday between U.S. and Russian satellites.

The FAA posted a notice to pilots on Saturday that “until further notice…a potential hazard may occur due to the reentry of satellite debris into the Earth’s atmosphere.”

“In the interest of flight safety,” the notice said, “it is critical that all pilots/flight crewmembers report any observed falling space debris to the appropriate (air traffic control) facility.”

The chief of Russia's Mission Control says clouds of debris from the collision will circle Earth for thousands of years and threaten numerous satellites.

The two communications satellites collided Tuesday in the first-ever crash of two intact spacecraft in orbit.

The collision occurred Tuesday nearly 500 miles over Siberia, producing a pair of massive debris clouds, according to NASA.

The collision involved an Iridium commercial satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be non-functioning.

Each satellite weighed more than 1, 000 pounds, officials said.

SUNDAY
There were no reports Sunday of injuries or damage, although several small grassfires broke out around the same time as the explosion.

It wasn’t clear whether the space debris ignited those fires.

Some area residents saw the falling debris Sunday morning.

Jetta Hicks was driving on FM 1624 west of Calvert when she said she saw something burning in the sky, falling at a 45-degree angle.

She said it had a tail and appeared to be flaming.

She said she didn’t see anything hit the ground.

A resident of the Hubbard area reported seeking smoke high in the air at the time of the explosion and a camper at Mother Neff State Park in Coryell County spotted smoke from the falling debris.

Another witness who was in the Belton area described seeing “a ball of fire coming out of the sky.”

Residents reported feeling the explosion from the Marlin area north to Corsicana.

Authorities checked on reports of debris in the Leroy area early Sunday afternoon, but none has been found so far.

Law enforcement agencies were advised Sunday to contain the debris so it can be tested to confirm it came from the satellites.

Residents who find debris should leave it where they found it and contact a law enforcement agency.

What witnesses saw was reminiscent of the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia during reentry 39 miles above Texas on Feb. 1, 2003.

The disintegrating shuttle left a path of debris that stretched from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Louisiana.

The debris field covered more than 28 thousand square miles in 33 Texas counties.

Investigators later determined that a chunk of foam the size of a suitcase tore a hole in Columbia's left wing 82 seconds after liftoff.

The breach allowed superheated gasses to enter the wing as the shuttle reentered the atmosphere at a speed of more than 12,000 miles an hour.