It probably wasn't Superman who drew central Iowans' eyes to the sky Thursday evening. A meteor is the more likely explanation for the streak of light that reportedly lasted just a few seconds.

The National Weather Service was able to catch a ball of light on one of its cameras in Iowa City, but thinks its footage may show the planet Venus, which was also visible around the same time.

Kurt Kotenberg of the NWS said the agency has received accounts of people seeing a "fireball."

"We're looking at the reports, also," Kotenberg said. "The interesting thing's about it, Venus was visible in the sky just after sunset."

Social media posts from Iowans claiming to have seen the potential meteor indicate it appeared over central Iowa skies about 5:40 p.m., although it seems few eyewitnesses had a camera ready.

An early photo sent to WHO-TV and posted on its website turned out to be a fake, thought to be a doctored 2011 image of a satellite. A North Carolina-based meteorologist spotted the phony photo and outed it on Twitter Thursday evening.

Kotenberg said his agency won't be able to determine what the flash of light was because of its location in the sky. Since it appeared in the upper part of the atmosphere, the NWS won't be providing an official report.

"It's not a weather phenomenon," Kotenberg said.

Iowans have started filing reports of the sighting with the American Meteor Society, a nonprofit organization that works to "promote research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers who are directly interested in meteoric astronomy." As of Thursday evening, several pending reports out of communities across the state had been made at amsmeteors.org.

Steven Spangler, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa, said this time of December is not a "prominent meteor shower time" but that "sporadic meteors" happen all the time.

Spangler said he goes out to look for meteors every clear night, but tonight he missed his chance.