If you were glancing at the northwestern sky on Sunday night at about 8:45, you got a look at something a bit unusual.

That something was a meteor that streaked from northwest to southeast, and prompted a lot of people to head to the American Meteor Society's website to report what they had seen. To date, more than 600 people have logged a sighting:

  • "I saw this from our rural residence six miles due west of Monmouth Illinois. It was visible for almost ten seconds and was a beautiful gas flame blue color. I was photographing a cropduster and had my camera in hand with 300MM zoom and was so surprised I never thought to try to photograph it."
  • "I believe I saw this from the ground outside of Ripon, Wisconsin facing due west (approximate location 43.855N , 88.938W)"
  • "We saw it from Peotone, Il. West sky moving north to south, guessing about 30deg angle from horizon, bright green with 2-3 piece separation before disappearing."
  • "I live in lees summit mo and my mother, my husband and I were sitting in the living watching a movie when my husband jumped up and ran the the sliding glass doors which face the north east a yelled “what is that”. Scared my mom and I. He said a missle just flew across the sky. Of course we just laughed at him."

From the Daily Herald:

Bill Cooke, an analyst in NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said this sighting was special because the angle of entry for the meteor was so shallow, which allowed it to remain visible for a longer time. Cooke's analysis of video and other data indicated the fireball entered the Earth's atmosphere 61 miles above Rippey, Iowa, traveling 87,000 mph. It burned out some 170 miles later, 46 miles above Burlington, Iowa, near the Illinois border. Cooke said because of the angle and speed of the meteor, there is "no chance that this meteor produced meteorites" that would have fallen to Earth.

In case (like me) you missed it:

Luckily, this meteor visit wasn't even close to being as "exciting" as the one in 2013 over Chelyabinsk, Russia:

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