Sighting in Villers-lès-Luxeuil, December 14, 1984

In the late afternoon, several people in different towns and departments across France saw a luminous object cross the sky quickly and without a sound. It was shaped like a cigar or a ball and left a trail behind it. The sighting lasted a few seconds, and then the object vanished instantly toward the southwest. The gendarmerie took four statements, three from one place and one from another. Other witnesses came forward through the local press, and one of them gave a time of 5:50 pm in a newspaper article. The times reported at Marnans and at Villers-les-Luxeuil differ by about 25 minutes. At Villers-les-Luxeuil, one witness looked at their watch, though it is not stated whether it had been set correctly. The witness at Marnans did not say how they judged the time.

No further investigation was carried out in 1984 to add to the two gendarmerie reports, which are fairly brief. The case was recently re-examined from the archives, without a return to the site.

The GEIPAN concluded that the witnesses saw a small bolide, or at the very least an exceptionally bright shooting star. The appearance, silence, speed, trail and sudden disappearance all fit this kind of phenomenon. The date coincides with the peak of the Geminids, whose radiant lay on the northeast horizon, the direction from which the object seemed to come. The wide distance between the witnesses also points to a very fast phenomenon at high altitude. Other bolides were seen in the weeks around that date. A slight doubt remains about the exact time, which could mean two bolides rather than one, but the press reported only one. The case is classified A: it is reasonably identified as the entry of a small meteoroid into the atmosphere.