Meteor Lights Up Night Sky

MYFOXNY.COM - A fireball lit up the midwest sky Wednesday night, turning night to day for a brief moment.

Scientists believe a meteor streaked across the Midwestern skies around 10 p.m. Wednesday.

One observer described it as an enormous ball of light .

The National Weather Service says the meteor soared past five states.

A police car dash camera (video left) caught the object as it passed over head.

Doppler Radar from the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities appeared to capture a portion of the smoke trail from the fireball, as seen in the image below.

It appears as a thin line extending across portions of Grant and Iowa Counties in Wisconsin. This trail is positioned nearly 88 miles north-northeast of Davenport, Iowa at an elevation of just over 24,000 ft.

A statement from the National Weather Service said the fireball was seen over the northern sky, moving from west to east. Well before it reached the horizon, it broke up into smaller pieces and was lost from sight. The fireball was seen across Northern Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Southern Wisconsin.

Several reports of a prolonged sonic boom were received, along with shaking of homes, trees and various other objects including wind chimes.

Steve Baron saw the light on a flight from Las Vegas to Chicago.  He says he was staring out the window at 28,000 feet "when the world suddenly lit up - it was amazing - I watched this large firey object break up into 3 pieces, then a bunch of smaller ones - then it got dark again."

He added on a Facebook post, "It was soooooo cool to see that from up in the sky."