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Hello,
From your description it is hard to say what you saw. I can definitely
say that it was not a comet, as comets take several months to move across
the sky. Depending on how long it took to cross the sky, I can make a
few guesses:
1) If the object moved across the sky in a few seconds, then it
may have been a meteor. Some meteors tend to leave glowing
tails behind them (called "trains") that can last for
several minutes.
2) If the object took a few minutes to cross the sky, it may
have been an airplane. The moon was nearly full on
December 31, and could have lit up an airplane's
contrails, which look much different in moonlight than
in sunlight.
3) You may also have seen a rocket launch from Florida or
the European launch facility in South America. I'm
not aware if there were any launches on that date
or not. You may want to check the NASA website
(www.nasa.gov) or the european space agency (ESA)
to see if there was a launch that night. If there
was a launch, I would bet that this is what you
saw. Night launches can be seen from hundreds of
miles away!
Thanks for writing, and I'm sorry that I couldn't nail down what you saw
more precisely.
Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams
"It is in the heart that the values lie. I wish I could make
him understand that a loving heart is riches, and riches
enough, and that without it intellect is poverty."
- Eve's Diary [Mark Twain]
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