Inhabitants from the Slovak town of Košice were frightened Sunday night by a bizzare light in the sky and a loud explosion followed by a shock wave. According to astronomers apparently an object from space collided with the Earth and shortly before impact most likely exploded in the atmosphere.

"It is most likely that Earth encountered an interplanetary object about half a meter or a meter in diameter" said according to Slovakian server SME.sk Drahomír Chochol from the Astronomical institute of the Slovak academy of sciences (SAV) in Tatranská Lomnice. (read more on SME.sk)

"At around eleven thirty a light appered in the courtyard window and slowly began to glow brightly," stated a resident from the village Jasov near Košice. "Not like lightning, but really slowly, until the room was lit like during the day." She continues, "we thought it strange that the dog didn't bark."

"After that the light faded and we heard the sound. The noise was similar to drumming, we felt pressure in our ears like when you stand next to speakers. It lasted at least a minute," the resident of Jasovanka described the Sunday event.

According to Chochol the object entered the atmosphere where friction caused it to heat up and explode at an altitude of roughly 30 kilometres above the surface. The explosion was accompanied by light that at its maximum brightness was a thousand times brighter than a full moon.

"It could have been one of the meteoroids that circle the Earth and it sometimes happens that they collide with the Earth," said Chochol and added that unfortunately astronomers do not have a scientific record of the event. "Even though we have a point camera on Lomnický štít, at the time it was overcast. Therefore we only have reports from individuals and from them we are attempting to explain the event." he said.

The strange light had been captured in poor quality by one camera, part of the European Point Network, but amateur images from Prešov have also surfaced. But this will most likely be insuficient to determine the impact site and for the overall reconstruction of the object's movement. To get the exact calculation they need records from at least three independent locations.