ST. LOUIS - Downstate skywatchers in eight different states were stunned Monday night when a meteor estimated to be five feet across flashed across the sky, and likely landed - a much smaller version - somewhere west of the St. Louis suburbs.
The meteor was traveling about 44,000 mph, scientists are saying - and it caused a loud sonic boom when it hit the Earth's atmosphere.
"That was a sonic boom. As the thing was entering the atmosphere it was moving much faster than the speed of sound so that was a sonic boom from a relatively large object crashing through the atmosphere," a professor explained to St. Louis TV station KMOV2.
There was also a bright flash everyone saw.
The meteor was going so fast that the pressure of the air against the rock created so much heat, the outer layers were quickly vaporized - likely 80 to 90 percent of the original meteor dissolved.
And what's remaining is what a museum in Maine is offering an reward for if the remains are at least one kilogram.
There's been no official statement as to whether if an Illinoisan were to find the remains if the $25,000 reward would be taxable.
