Many Chicagoans' daily commutes were made extraordinary Thursday morning by a fireball that flashed across the sky shortly after 6 a.m. In the seconds before the fireball disappeared, WGN-TV helicopter pilot Mike Sypien saw a burning green and red ball of light, which he described as moving faster than an airplane across the sky."My photographer was like, 'Holy cow, did you see that?' " Sypien said. "It was very vivid. It was very bright. It almost looked like somebody took a flare and threw it across our windshield."

Other news helicopter pilots who were also hovering over traffic exclaimed through their radios simultaneously, Sypien said. People across the Midwest, from Illinois to Tennessee and from Iowa across to Ohio, alerted the American Meteor Society, which received more than 400 online reports by Thursday afternoon.

Reports described the fireball as orange, yellow or white. Many wrote that it exploded as it descended. Almost all said it was like nothing they had ever seen. "I've been flying over 14 years," Sypien said. "I've never seen anything like that. You could not have missed it, I'll tell you."

This was the 13th "significant" meteor event in the United States this month, making September the most active month since the American Meteor Society began tracking them in 2005, according to Mike Hankey, a meteor observer for the society.
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© Kevin Keadle, Palatine, IllinoisPhotograph taken by Kevin Keadle of Palatine of a meteor that streaked across the dawn sky in the Midwest this morning.

Comment: The "13th significant meteor" spotted in the U.S. for September? Just scan SOTT's "Fire In The Sky" category - they are being seen in the U.S. and world wide almost daily. Something is afoot on the BBM...


Significant events - defined as being reported by more than 25 people - usually happen three to five times in a month, Hankey said. While meteors fall to the earth all the time, he said, they usually go undetected as they are most easily seen during the middle of the night and because they often fall where there are no people - such as over oceans, deserts or remote parts of Wyoming.

"For it to happen at rush hour in a densely populated area where there's millions of people on the road that have a capability of seeing it is pretty rare," Hankey said. "It's a special thing for someone who saw it, and they will probably never see it again for the rest of their lives."

That this meteor was seen across so many states would indicate that it grazed the atmosphere at a horizontal angle rather than falling straight down, according to Larry Ciupik, an astronomer at Adler Planetarium. Reports that it exploded and fragmented indicates that the fireball is most likely a bolide from a relatively large meteorite made of dirty ice.

Hankey discouraged people from drawing any apocalyptic or conspiracy theories. Ciupik and Hankey agreed that increased sightings do not indicate a statistical increase in meteors hitting the earth. Rather, increased use of social media, anticipation of comet ISON and news reports about the meteor that injured more than 1,000 people in February when it exploded over Russia could simply be increasing awareness. And that may not be a bad thing.

"Everybody should see at least one of these in their life span," Ciupik said. "The problem is that people don't always look up."