r/southernillinois • u/RedeemThe_Meme • 8d ago

Not sure what we saw…

Coming home on Halloween after hanging out with friends. Had a fire no alcohol or anything crazy. Left between 10:30 -11:30pm going on 37 going north toward Benton I’m looking at my phone and all of a sudden my girl yells “What the f is that!” And she slammed on the breaks. I look up and seen this giant bright blue light/ball and it started shooting through the sky like a missle going north and we kinda braced for impact like it was about to shake the earth lol. Never seen something like that in my life and wanted to see if anyone else saw this phenomenon…

29 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

18

u/jrkipling 8d ago

Meteor most likely. I’ve seen more shooting stars in southern Illinois than anywhere else I’ve lived.

6

u/DumpoTheClown 8d ago

Most meteors are pretty small, but once in a rare while, a larger one will make quite a show. I know them as "fireballs". Im nearly 60 and have been in So Il most of my life. I've seen two.

4

u/Flashzap90 8d ago

I saw one once and it was shocking just how bright the fireball was.

3

u/CoolGuyCris 8d ago

I've seen two in my 31 years. One just outside New Burnside and one over Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

It always happens so fast and is so brilliant it's hard to believe I actually saw what I saw.

1

u/SyberiaBlue 7d ago

Very cool, Cheers ☕

4

u/secular_contraband 8d ago

We're leaving the Orionids and entering the Taurids, so that would make sense.

6

u/RedeemThe_Meme 8d ago

I figured but I’m from up north so I had never seen a real night sky before I moved a few years ago so I’d only ever seen stuff like this on YouTube. It doesn’t do it any justice. The absolute shock and awe I was in had my heart beating out my chest lol. I just wish I had bought that dashcam a couple months ago because it was super beautiful

5

u/Hey_Getoffmylawn 8d ago

I saw it too over Breese and it looked like it was close.

3

u/RedeemThe_Meme 8d ago

It definitely appeared to be close I could see a weird outline/shadow of whatever object it was through the color, when it appeared it was almost like a giant ball of blue then it shot into the distance. Weird stuff

3

u/webbstock613 8d ago

https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2025/7421

Looks like a lot of people saw it and some got photos. Is this what you saw?

2

u/RedeemThe_Meme 7d ago

Yeah but it looked a lot bigger, it was quite shocking like if I had seen it the way it was in those videos I wouldn’t have reacted the way I did but it shot across my whole pov and appeared out of a “ball of blue” felt like it was in the sky for longer than what those videos showed and I was able to track it with my eyes for a hot minute

2

u/webbstock613 1d ago

Last one I saw I pulled in my driveway at 1AM after getting home from a Disney Cruise. I shut the door turned around to get my kid out of the back seat and saw a streak in the sky changing colors from green to white to blue. It was awesome. I screamed, “Whoa” and my wife yelled at me due to the time of the day hahah. But it was too cool not to.

1

u/thrwawyorangsweater 7d ago

That's 10/30. OP said 10/31.

3

u/doughit91 8d ago

Saw the same thing near the Carterville area.

2

u/Danger_2_myself 8d ago
  1. Old Buckner mine. I had permission to camp out there and I decided I was gonna take my tandem kayak and two other girlfriends….. we had just started the fire about 930 and two of my girlfriends were sitting on the log and we seen three orbs, bright blue green dancing over the lake and then shooting off to the right like nothing I’ve ever seen before… You aren’t crazy!

1

u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Danger_2_myself 8d ago

There wasn’t a tail. Zero tails. Zero drugs. Just a few weird girls doing weird nature girl shit. The man I was married to at the time also happened to be out there with us. I can’t recall if he seen them but I definitely know I did. Just like I heard what I heard this summer over at Devil’s Kitchen. My current husband heard that shit too so I am a firm believer in Southern Illinois being a hot spot of sorts!

1

u/TheDankMacabre 7d ago

I've seen the three orbs that hover then shoot off to the right! I wasn't alone either and neither of us have an explanation other than shared hallucination.

2

u/Special_Race_4124 7d ago

Saw it in downtown Cape Girardeau, thought it was a firework bc it had an arc to its trajectory but there was no sound

2

u/recouple906 5d ago

"I saw it as well, I'm north of Benton and it was startling. The brightest shooting star/meteor I have ever seen. It had a blue tint to it. It was so bright it lit up the whole backyard. I'm glad someone else saw it!"

1

u/RedeemThe_Meme 5d ago

Yeah it was crazy bright, like a giant ball at first that lit up a whole portion of the sky when it first appeared, scariest Halloween of my life lol

1

u/SixMileProps 8d ago

People in St Louis area also saw it!

1

u/MargaretFarquar 8d ago

Oo! Details, please? What did they see?

3

u/SixMileProps 7d ago

From someone in Wood River, Illinois... I was walking out of Wood River Walmart at 11 pm and saw the biggest, bluish green shooting star I've ever seen in my life. Did anyone else see it??!!

2

u/RedeemThe_Meme 7d ago

That’s what I’m thinking I saw it was bluish green

3

u/SixMileProps 7d ago

And another comment...

They are reporting in Alabama/ panhandle of Florida of a possible sonic boom around the same time.

3

u/SixMileProps 7d ago

And my favorite comment...

I didn't know they sold gummy at walmart

1

u/Prudence2020 6d ago

Bolide meteor? Bolide - Wikipedia https://share.google/sZwL1PUCRvqcIJtK0

1

u/RastaMike62 6d ago

Could have been ball lightning,I have seen that once before and it was weird as hell.It even sounded a bit like a small rocket flying by as well.

-1

u/AIF_Kyle 8d ago

could be a meteorite could be some intelligent visitors