An expert in meteorites says a bright flashing light and loud boom over the skies in metro Phoenix looks like a single meteor burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour.
Radar footage shows that meteorites may have fallen to the ground early Thursday near the eastern Arizona community of Cibecue, said Laurence Garvie, curator of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University.
Garvie said the flashing light across the sky likely wasn't a meteor shower, but rather a random piece of space rock that intersected with the orbit of the Earth.
"That's what everyone will rush out there to look at," Garvie said.
Video footage shows the skies went from dark to instantly bright—and then grew even brighter.
It produced a loud boom that awoke people sleeping in Phoenix.
The flash in the sky finally decreased in intensity and fizzled out.
Meteorites are black rocks ranging in size from a pea to a grapefruit.
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