What was that mysterious object seeming to fall from the sky?

A viewer of KSLA's sister station KAIT in Jonesboro, Ark., submitted video of what appears to...
A viewer of KSLA's sister station KAIT in Jonesboro, Ark., submitted video of what appears to be a shooting star falling from the sky. People from Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi have reported having seen it.
Published: Feb. 7, 2023 at 9:05 PM CST|Updated: Feb. 7, 2023 at 9:48 PM CST
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(KSLA) — Did you see the mysterious object in the sky?

Several people in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi have said they did. Surveillance cameras throughout the area captured video.

One KSLA News 12 viewer said she immediately texted her neighbors to ensure everyone was okay. “But we were all at the dinner table and we were like uh, aliens, question mark; meteorites, question mark. But, yeah, then we found out late it was a probably a meteorite.”

Or was it a meteor, a piece of space junk or something else?

Meteor vs meteorite: NASA says when meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite.

A KSLA News 12 viewer in Blanchard, La., saw a green ball of light about 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6:

Video submitted by a viewer of KSLA’s sister station KAIT in Jonesboro, Ark., gives a view of a falling object:

And a surveillance camera at Harvest Baptist Church NEA in Paragould, Ark., caught this video at 6:57 p.m. Monday:

“It was neat. The sky did not light up the way it did in some other (videos),” said the Rev. Jason Mears, who serves as the church’s executive pastor. “(But) it was really neat to be able to catch it on the camera.”

One scientist says it was a meteor.

“There’s actually meteor showers that occur every month of the year, but many of them are just not that impressive,” said Dr. Cran Lucas, president of the Shreveport-Bossier Astronomical Society.

“But you can have what we call sporatic meteors which are not connected to any particular shower. And I suspect what people saw in the video is a sporatic meteor.”

You may wonder what is a meteor?

“Meteors are basically just leftover debris from the formation of the solar system.”

According to Dr. Lucas, most meteors are the size of a pea. Large meteors are very rare.

Most of the particles and debris probably never hits Earth. You can use a magnet to pick up debris to does make its way to the ground, scientists say.