Aerial sight was a meteor

That dazzling object seen falling from the sky over Missouri, Kansas and other Midwestern states Sunday evening was a meteor, though where it ended up is uncertain, experts said.

Many people reported seeing the round, orange object or hearing a thunderlike sound, some of them while watching the Super Bowl on TV.

Astronomers and space buffs said Monday the description was consistent with either a meteor or debris that sometimes falls to Earth from old spacecraft.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, however, determined Monday that the object was not man-made but rather a meteor, spokesman Michael Kucharek said. The command monitors the re-entry of man-made debris. ...

Russ Bixby of Leavenworth County was not far from home when he saw the meteor fall and then disappear with a flash, as if it had hit ground.

"It was one of the more impressive things I have ever seen," Bixby said.

Randy Korotev, research associate professor of Earth and planetary science at Washington University in St. Louis, said a flash doesn't mean a meteor landed. Meteors can flash while bursting apart in the sky, he said.

The rumbling sounds people heard, he said, were probably sonic booms.

Meteors that reach the Earth are usually never found because the Earth is covered mostly by water and undeveloped land. ...

•	Aerial sight was a meteor The Kansas City Star, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007 Byline: Kevin Murphy, The Kansas City Star

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