SOUTHERN INDIANA – Residents in Southern Indiana reported on numerous social media platforms about hearing a loud boom and seeing what they described as a fireball streaking across the night sky.
Some residents reported what they thought might have been an explosion due to the loud sound and flashing lights.
Pilots in Kentucky and Indiana reported seeing a meteor.
Videos taken by residents and published on social media show a bright light streaking across the sky. Several videos also captured the rumbling sound caused by the meteor.
A meteor is a piece of space rock entering the Earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA. The bright streak with the appearance of a “shooting star” is actually the extremely hot air produced by the meteor. The rocks usually burn up in Earth’s atmosphere before reaching the ground.
Indiana’s flashing lights fell during the Lyrids, one of the oldest recorded meteor showers. Meteors from the shower are expected to be most frequent on Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday morning.
The American Meteor Society, which keeps track of fireball sightings, had a lot of reports around Indianapolis Thursday night.
