Giant Fireball Meteor Has Twitter On Fire: Video

The Twitter universe is on fire with pictures of the monstrous meteor that streaked across the Midwest sky before burning out over Lake Michigan early Monday morning. The American Meteor Society said it has received 467 reports so far of the meteor, which was seen in several states but primarily in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Residents of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, New York, Kentucky, Minnesota and Ontario, Canada, also reported seeing the fireball. In Wisconsin, some residents reported hearing a loud boom, then seeing the night sky light up, as it might with a lightning strike.

In Appleton, Wisconsin, Scott and Kathy Meyer said their house shook for a few seconds. They knew it wasn't an earthquake.

The boom from the meteor “definitely felt like it was coming from up above,” Kathy Meyer told WBAY-TV. Another resident, Dave Baye, said the giant fireball looked like fireworks but told the TV station he could tell it was a “huge ball of fire” that had a tail.

• See Also: Huge Fireball Streaks Across Midwest Sky: Watch

Greenville resident Casey Mall-Pavich lives near a rifle range and an airport, so she’s accustomed to hearing loud noises. “But it was so loud,” she told the TV station, that she checked the family's security camera footage, which revealed something that resembled headlights. She was’t convinced, so she checked Twitter, where she saw other reports of the meteor.

It’s not unusual for meteors to reach the Earth, he said, “but the big ones are sort of rare,” Bonadure said, estimating it was probably about the size of a basketball.

Below are more social media posts from the unusual sighting.

Here, from the American Meteor Society, is the estimated trajectory of the meteor.

Screenshot via YouTube