(WWJ) What was that fireball in the sky?
The phones in the WWJ Newsradio 950 newsroom lit up Wednesday morning, shortly after 5 a.m., with people reporting seeing something burning falling from the sky — some of them in the area of Detroit Metro Airport.
David Ketchum from Westland said he was on his way to work what he noticed something bright and flashing fall from above.
"I was traveling eastbound on Van Born, coming up to Telegraph — I was going to turn south— and just in the instance, just east of me, I seen a golden flashing light traveling very, very fast come down, and then it just disappeared," Ketchum said. "So, it had to hit the ground somewhere."
Ketchum told WWJ's Taylor Dietz he'd never seen anything like it before.
"Absolutely not! I was actually listening to your guys on the radio, and I wanted to call, but I was driving. So, I had to wait to get to work."
Other people seeing it from along Dixie Highway in Waterford or along I-75.
At around the same timey, there were similar sightings in Buffalo, New York, Ontario, and Ohio.
Asked by WWJ what it was, the folks at the National Weather Service said they didn't know anything about it.
Mike Narlock, Head of Astronomy at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, said he can't make a confirmation, but talked about what it might have been.
"We did have a couple of reports over the past few weeks of fireballs," Narlock said. "This could've been just space junk falling into the atmosphere. NASA usually tracks those, so NASA will be updating its websites later on today, I'm sure, to indicate what this was, and what the actual track was."
Another distinct possibility: "We're also at a time where there are well-known meteor showers happening, and a few weeks ago we had the peak of what we call the Eta Aquarids, which is a meteor shower that happens every year around this time," Narlock said. "And it originates from debris left over in our solar system for Halley’s Comet "
The skies over Metro Detroit were nice and clear Wednesday morning, Narlock noted, which makes spotting any meteor much more likely.
