Spectacular meteor lights up the Midwest

CHICAGO - Skywatchers over a far-reaching area of the Midwest got a short but fantastic light show as a fireball streaked opposite the sky Wednesday night.

Reports about the fireball began flooding law coercion agencies as well as National Weather Service offices from Milwaukee to St. Louis at around 10 p.m. CT (11 p.m. ET). Sightings were reported in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.

"A large meteorite could have caused the shining fireball that has been reported," the National Weather Service’s Milwaukee bureau pronounced in statement. In Iowa, officials reported a enlarged sonic bang associated to the display. The University of Wisconsin at Madison prisoner the meteors tumble in a time-lapse Webcam sequence.

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Meteor hunters were perplexing to fix up the objects alighting spot. David Sheets, a meteorologist at the continue services bureau in Davenport, Iowa, estimated that the meteor was about 24,000 feet on top of Earth when it flashed opposite the Quad Cities.

The Davenport continue use bureau pronounced in a matter that the meteorite pennyless up in to pieces during the skirmish by the atmosphere. As of late Wednesday, it was "unknown either any apportionment of this meteorite strike the ground," the bureau said. Other reports referred to that a square competence have depressed in southern Wisconsin.

"While no central integrity has been done of what caused the fireball ... space debris, meteor, etc. ... there is a meteor showering now occurring called the Gamma Virginids," the Milwaukee continue use bureau noted. "It began Apr 4 and is approaching to last by Apr 21."

A better-known meteor shower, well known as the Lyrids, is only commencement and is approaching to rise Apr 22.

Meteor showers start when Earth moves by the route of vast dust and waste left at the back of by a comet or spasmodic an asteroid. Most of the meteor trails start high up in the ambience and have no impactthe surface, butrare occasions, meteorites can tarry the fall.

This inform includes report from The Associated Press, WMAQ-TV and msnbc.com.

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