"Was that a meteor shower last night?" (AP via Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

[bobthedrummer]

Many people in the Midwest reported sightings of "balls of fire" or unusual activity last night. Astronomers, pilots, law enforcement and NORAD presently have no explanations for what people reported.

http://www.jsonline.com/watch/?watch=1&date=2/5/2007&id=18409

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Another one, eh?

Didn't they have mysterious flying objects around O'Hare recently? Maybe the aliens have decided to show themselves.....

[Orrex]

2. That seems the most likely explanation

:eyes:

[amitten]

3. Okay, that is so weird. I'm not into star-gazing, but last night for

some reason I kept going outside to look at the sky.

Didn't see anything unusual, but it's strange I was suddenly so compelled to keep looking!

[bobthedrummer]

6. That is weird. I hope that people follow up on this, and not by ridicule.

It could be anything, from pieces of destroyed satellites to PSY-OPS to God knows what.

I believe that something influenced you to do something you wouldn't normally do, amitten.

[HereSince1628]

4. Dashed dreams of Bears fans?

Maybe :shrug:

[Up2Late]

8. Hey, that's not nice!

It's still a little early for that sort of barb, especially for such a lack-luster Superbowl "victory" for the Colts.

BTW, I'm a nearly life-long Bears fan, who grew up in Northern Indiana, 2 hours east of Chicago and 3 hours north of Indianapolis. I had always hoped for a NFL team for Indiana, but moved away from Indiana a few years before the Colts moved to Indianapolis, so as you might guess, I had a "...don't know who to cheer for..." feeling last night. Still, it's a little early for that jab.

[HereSince1628]

17. Well, I'm a Bear fan too. Why? Because I love meteoric

showers of hope, and can laugh at the icy bleakness of a winless winter night. The only folks who understand that better are Cubs fans.

[Up2Late]

5. I wonder if it's parts of that Chinese Weather satellite that they shot down...

...a few weeks ago?

Sounds like some sort of "space junk" to me.

[bobthedrummer]

12. Yep-whatever was reported as "balls of fire" might be related to ASW. n/t

[Taverner]

7. The most likely theory on this and the O'Hare incident

USAF Test Aircraft. They have tons of stuff we don't know about...perhaps one of their tests failed?

[bobthedrummer]

15. Another serious possibility to consider, Taverner-good point. n/t

[theaudacity]

9. I was driving across Wisconsin last night. People were shooting off fireworks...

Because of the superbowl. It might be too simplistic of an answer, but it's worth a shot.

[bobthedrummer]

11. The region included Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin based on the article n/t

[theaudacity]

13. Well, I would assume that it was not just a Wisconsin activity.

If they were shooting off mortars and bottle rockets in Wisconsin, I see no reason they wouldn't be doing it in other states as well.

[bobthedrummer]

14. A reading of the article eliminates your opinion, btw,welcome to DU.

[bobthedrummer]

10. Hmmm, this was moved from LBN to GD even though it's LBN.

[bobthedrummer]

16. Whatever these things were is getting significant coverage in the Midwest MSM.

NORAD's Major April Cunningham knows the difference between say a reentering SL-4, a flight of geese and "balls of fire".

I'm checking out some of the things being said about these "balls of fire" in Chicago, Milwaukee, Des Moines, Madison, St. Louis, and many other places.

Did any DUers see these "balls of fire" last night or anyone have a local report to link to?

[bobthedrummer]

18. Anyone notice whatever these were last night?

[Octafish]

19. Lots of weird reports of late.

I like the classic cases like the Trent photographs, too. And a bit more from McMinnville.