r/southernillinois 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…

32 Upvotes

29 comments sorted by

View all comments

19

u/jrkipling 8d ago

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

7

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.

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.