Fireball over Hamilton County was not a meteor. Here’s what it was. – IndyStar

Just after midnight Thursday, Clayton Thompson was sitting outsidehis Fishers home when he sawsomething he "couldn't believe."

"It was gigantic," Thompson told IndyStar. "A blaze in the sky, almost like a fireball."

He happened to be recording himself on anapp, when he's seen on videostartled by a bright streak of light hurtling across the sky.

"Oh my God," he says on camera. "Look at that ... Halley's comet, baby ... what is that?"

He spent the next few hours researching what it could have been.Experts answered his question for IndyStar,taking into account both the speed and brightness of the object.

Thompson says he usually looks up at the sky for a "glimpse of anything," but he notes this timehe got lucky.

"I'dnever seen anything like it," Thompson said. "And it was just so vibrant and so close that it made an impact on me."

Based on those factors, the object waslikely a man-made object reentering the Earth's atmosphere, according toButler University physics and astronomy professor Brian Murphy.

"It was because of the speed at which it was moving," Murphyexplained. "It looked as though it was moving fast, but it was moving a lot slower than say a meteor orsay a fireball. They would be moving close to four to fivetimes the speed than what we saw there."

Man-made space junkusually falls back to Earth around 17,000 miles per hour, Murphy said.A meteor or space rock, on the other hand, would travel significantly faster at around 90,000 miles per hour.

NASA astronaut shows off Indianapolisfrom space: See the picture here

The American Meteor Society, a non-profit astronomyorganization, collected more than 150 reports of a fireball seen around 12:40 a.m. EST across several states including Indiana, Ohioand Kentucky. The Indiana sightings included reports from Westfield and Fishers, where Thompson recorded his video.

The organization concluded the object seen was not a natural fireball, but in fact there-entry of aRussian reconnaissance satellite, which "launched on Sept. 9 but failed to maintain orbit," theAmerican Meteor Society states.

The various viewpoints across the Midwest likely helped in making thatdetermination, Murphy explained.

But that very fact the broad coverage area and the immense brightness may have alsobewildered observers, leading them tothink it was a more natural phenomena, such as a fireball.

A fireball is a type ofexceptionally bright meteor, "spectacular enough to to be seen over a very wide area," according to NASA.And the one seen over Indiana early Thursday was really bright.

"This onehada very bright nucleus ... and left a trail behind it,"Indiana University astronomy professorCatyPilachowski said.The object's flaringalso mimicked a the "burst of energy" seen when afireball'sparticles heat up and explode,she explained.

Another twist:the Orionid meteor shower, which peakedlate Wednesday and early Thursday morning.

More: The Orionid meteor shower will peak Thursday morning, but moon glare might ruin it

The Orionid meteor shower isassociated with the well-known Halley's Comet, which "isn't anywhere near us,"Pilachowski explained, but it continually sheds dust as it orbits around the sun. Thosetiny dust particles sometimes fall intoEarth'satmosphere, heat up and create streaks of lights in the sky.

The shower continues into Thursday, but the fullmoon's light willdecrease visibilityand "wash out" many of the meteors, according to Indiana University.If the weather is clear, people may still beable to catch aflash of space matter early Friday morning between midnight and dawn though chances are slim.In the Indianapolis area, the forecast doesn't look too promising.

"We're going to be fairly cloudy tonight," Mike Ryan, a meteorologist with Indianapolis' National Weather Service, explained. "It's going to be very unlikely that we see any breaks in the clouds."

Youmight still get some opportunities to see meteors in the coming months.The Earth passes Halley's orbit twice each year, with the next chance of its meteor dust likely visible in the spring.

The next major meteor shower will be the Gemini shower inDecember, expected to peak on the night of Dec. 13. It's the "most active showerof the year," according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, with an average of 75 meteors flying by per hour. Pilachowski said the visibility for that showershould be "excellent."

Contact Rashika Jaipuriar atrjaipuriar@gannett.comandfollow her on Twitter @rashikajpr.

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Fireball over Hamilton County was not a meteor. Here's what it was. - IndyStar