Slow moving object splits and one part sped away while the bigger part slowly moved in the opposite direction.

On approximately October 1, 2, or 3rd, 1972, my husband and I were traveling westbound on State Hwy 24  (now US Hwy 380) just east of the city of Denton, Texas.  It was between midnight and 6:00 am.  Both of us saw a lighted object ahead of us, not too far above treetops moving very slowly to the north.  My husband remembers it to have an orange glowing color.
When we first saw the object, it was south of the highway and moving slowly northward.  We looked at each other and asked if the other was also seeing the strange light moving at the unusually slow speed.  Both of us did so my husband stopped the car on the shoulder of the roadway and we continued to watch from within the car.
The lighted object moved northward across Hwy 380 very slowly.  At some point, when the object was north of Hwy 380, the object came to a stop and seemed to split into two parts.  The smaller part continued its northerly path, but at a very high rate of speed.  It was gone in a matter of seconds.  The other part appeared to returned southward across the highway from where it had originated but moved much more slowly than its first approach.  We watched both parts until they were out of sight.  The entire sighting took place over the course of  less than  5-10 minutes.
We have never forgotten it.  We have never seen anything like it since then, but both of us believe that what we saw was not something we have seen before or since.
My husband born in Denton and was 32 at the time of this sighting.  He was employed by a local municipality where he went on to work until retirement 26 years later.  We raised two children and have continued to live in Denton.
Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate.  PD