Meteor provides light show for Utahns

OGDEN -- A meteor passing over Utah made midnight seem like midday early Wednesday.

Video from outside security cameras at the University of Utah's Milford observatory shows a blinding flash of light around 12:07 a.m., followed by clear images of the meteor streaking away.

"It looks like a shooting star on steroids," said Seth Jarvis, director of the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City.

Katie Weaver, of Layton, saw the meteor streak across the sky about 12:10 a.m. as she was heading west on Antelope Drive.

"As I was driving home, I saw the sky turn a bright blue," Weaver said. "Then, the whole area lit up like it was daylight.

"I kept looking out the window and saw what looked like a fireball headed south toward Salt Lake City, then things got dark again," she said. "It was crazy and it scared me."

Jarvis estimated that the fireball was about the size of an oven and was traveling about 80,000 mph. It broke through the Earth's atmosphere and was probably around 100 miles above the ground when it became visible, he said. It almost certainly broke up before it reached the ground, he said.

Scientists with expertise in meteors will use the footage to help estimate its size and trajectory.

"We just got lucky and had a surveillance camera pointed in the right direction," said Wayne Springer, an associate professor of physics and astronomy. Springer has been working at the university's new observatory, which is perched on Frisco Peak, about 175 miles south of Salt Lake City.

After hearing news reports about the meteor Wednesday morning, Springer cued up the surveillance tape.

"And lo and behold there it was, this big flash of light," he said.

Informaton from the Associated Press is included in this report.

Updated 10:50 p.m.

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OGDEN — A bright light that made midnight seem bright as daylight early Wednesday was likely a meteor.

Katie Weaver of Layton saw the meteor streak across the sky about 12:10 a.m. as she was heading west on Antelope Drive.

“As I was driving home, I saw the sky turn a bright blue,” Weaver said. “Then, the whole area lit up like it was daylight.

“I kept looking out the window and saw what looked like a fireball headed south toward Salt Lake City, then things got dark again,” she said. “It was crazy and it scared me.”

Patrick Wiggins, a member of the NASA Solar System Ambassadors who’s retired from a career at Hansen Planetarium, told the Deseret News the incident was likely a bolide meteor, which causes a short, intense bright light as it explodes while passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.