Some residents of South Carolina received an initially terrifying awakening early Monday morning when their sky flashed bright blue and a large object was seen plummeting from the sky.
The unidentified flying object caught around Greenville county exploded in a few brief seconds causing an alarming boom that shook homes in several cities.
Over 30 emergency 911 calls were placed to at least one local police station while a number of fire fighters were dispatched before its mystery was solved.
'It sounds like a typical bolide,' Dr Charles St Lucas of the Roper Mountain Science Center told Fox4 of what he believes was a meteor, albeit early of their next expected shower in late April.
'This one broke apart into three or four different pieces, glowed a bright blue white,' he said calling its spontaneity, 'delightful.' With the sighting shortly before 2am, most residents didn't take it as coolly.
'I thought the aliens were coming,' one resident Cindie Stubbs told Fox4 with nervous excitement after witnessing the flash herself from above her home.
'I saw this big bright light that made the sand kind of almost sparkle it was so bright,' she said.
Bolides, according to the American Meteor Society, are a special type of fireball or astoundingly bright meteor. They are known for exploding before their landfall with a bright flash, similar to the blue one seen around Greenville.
Dr St Lucas told GoUpState.com that the blue coloring indicates that it was composed of copper or copper chloride. Being naturally occurring elements, it most likely wasn't falling 'space junk,' he reasons.
Injuries and damage from the sighting have not been reported.
Source: http://english.kompas.com