An early morning fireball streaked across the sky over southwest Wyoming early Thursday morning briefly turning the darkness to daylight and leaving some residents wondering whether they had witnessed a meteor — or something else.
Videos people have shared of the event show a bright blue-green object moving quickly across the sky before intensifying brightness as it descended.
In at least one recording, the sky flashes white for several seconds before fading back to black.
The sighting appears to have occurred around 4:49 a.m., according to dozens of reports submitted to the American Meteor Society, which documented multiple observations from northeast Utah and at least one from Lander.
One witness reported the flash lasted about 1.5 seconds and described the object as orange, yellow, and white.
Evanston resident Jonathan Lange said he didn’t see the object itself, but the light was impossible to ignore.
“It was like headlights shining in the window, and while I was trying to figure out what the light was, I heard what sounded like thunder," Lange said. "It was more like a sonic boom, and that was the end of it. I thought that was weird.”
Lange estimated the event happened around 5 a.m., give or take 15 minutes.
Another Evanston resident, Cameron Jones, captured the moment on his Ring camera at 4:49 a.m.
He said he didn’t see the flash personally, but his dogs woke him up just before the disturbance. In the video, the sky goes from pitch black to bright white for roughly three seconds before returning to darkness.
Dozens of other residents across southwest Wyoming reported seeing a similar flash of light around the same time on social media.
‘It Shook The House’
Evanston airport manager Mike LaSalle said he both saw and heard the blast early Thursday morning, describing a flash followed by a powerful boom that rattled his home.
He said he thought it was "thunder snow," as it was snowing at the time.
"It was a bright flash of white, and about 30 seconds later there was a boom — a solid boom," LaSalle said. "It shook the house and I was like, ‘What the heck was that?’”
Reports of a delayed boom are consistent with larger meteors entering the atmosphere at high speed, where the sound can take several seconds to reach the ground after the flash is seen.
Meteor Most Likely Cause, Experts Say
Retired meteorologist Jan Curtis of Cheyenne said the reports are consistent with a typical meteor event.
Curtis said sightings like Thursday morning's are not unusual, though the overall number of reported fireballs has been higher than normal in recent weeks, both in Wyoming and globally.
He said it’s typical for about a dozen meteors to be reported in Wyoming each month, though most go unnoticed. The majority are small, roughly the size of a marble, and burn up quickly in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.
“To actually reach the ground, they would have to be about the size of a brick or larger,” Curtis said. “Often, meteors are only visible for a few seconds.”
Curtis added that the event also appears more consistent with a meteor than a satellite or space debris re-entry, based on speed alone — one of the key ways scientists distinguish between the two.
“Meteors typically travel between 10 and 40 kilometers per second,” he said. “Satellites are much slower, usually around 7 kilometers per second. That difference in velocity is a major factor in identifying what people are seeing.”
Rocket Re-Entry Also Considered
Earlier reporting raised the possibility that the sighting could be related to space debris from a recent launch by the aerospace company Blue Origin.
According to information shared by a coordinator with the University of Wyoming planetarium, a satellite deployed during the company’s New Glenn mission earlier this week was placed into a lower-than-intended orbit and is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere within several days.
Debris from such a re-entry can also produce bright, fast-moving light across the sky, though experts note that confirming a match requires tracking data and orbital analysis.
Officials with the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security did not return a request for comment Thursday.
As of publication, no injuries or damage had been reported, and there were no confirmed reports of debris reaching the ground.
Astronomers and meteor tracking organizations typically reconstruct fireball events using witness reports, video footage, and sensor data, meaning more precise information about Thursday morning’s sighting could emerge in the coming days.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
