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The loud unexplained sound that rattled homes and unnerved people across the Athens area on Saturday may have been a sonic boom created by a meteor, a retired University of Georgia professor said Wednesday.
"I think if it wasn't the military, it may well have been a meteor, which may have been natural or a piece of space junk returning to Earth," said Michael Covington, an artificial intelligence expert who's been involved in astronomy for 50 years.
Because the boom was deafening across a wide area, a ground-based explosion could be ruled out as the cause, according to Covington."It seemed to be loud at a bunch of different places from the Athens Country Club to the Epps Bride Parkway area" in a north-to-south direction, he said.
Covington heard rattling in his Athens home at 1:26 p.m. Saturday.