It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, Its… A Meteor!

A meteor came crashing into the earth's atmosphere, visible in many Southern U.S. states Tuesday Night at approximately 8:50pm (CST)  Witnesses described the color as greenish-blue and like lightning.   The meteor was seen from Florida through to Oklahoma as it zipped across the sky from southeast to northwest.

From Rob Perillo/KATC TV3 Chief Meteorologist:  The Meteor was spotted by observers in Acadiana (Southwest Louisiana) including KATC TV3 News Anchor Hoyt Harris.  Hoyt and Acadiana observers were not alone in the observation with twitter reports (#flashoflight) from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida of a bright object in the sky at the same time.

A sonic boom was heard as far north as Western North Carolina & in Oklahoma where cloudy skies prohibited the viewing of the fireball. None of the reports in Acadiana mentioned a sonic boom.

The possible meteor was described as a large green ball (copper composition) with a trailing orange and yellow tail.

While there were no major meteor showers in progress there could still be a random object striking the Earth's atmosphere. Meteors as small as the size of a pea striking the Earth can put on quite a show.

As of press time there was no credible indication if the meteor reached the ground or just burned up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Apparently NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Near Earth Object did indicate a relatively "close" flyby of an asteroid this evening passing roughly 850,000 miles (more than 3 times the distance to the moon) from the Earth. This particular asteroid was estimated to be 25-60 feet in diameter, but it remains unclear if the possible meteor was debris associated with this asteroid or not.