Streak of light likely a meteor

The large, glowing, blue-green flying object residents reported seeing Wednesday night to authorities, media outlets and online resources across the state was most likely a meteor, officials with the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Thursday.

Locally, those who spotted the meteor -- the brief and typically bright light traveling across the sky that can be seen when a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere -- said it was unlike anything they'd seen.

Madisonville resident Vicki Ramsey said she was in her backyard at 7:52 p.m. Wednesday, checking on her bloodhounds, when she noticed the meteor out of the corner of her eye.

"When I first looked up, it was real bright and moving very slowly," she said. "It was a bright greenish-blue color and was a perfect circle. There was no trail at that time."

As the meteor fell, it began to look more like a fireball, Ramsey said, adding that she "could see sparks coming off the back of it" before it eventually faded into the atmosphere.

It was the first time she'd seen a meteor in the decade that she's lived on her 14-acre property, she said.

"I've seen shooting stars and things like that frequently, but never anything like this," Ramsey said. "I called my son and my mom and they thought I was losing my mind."

At that point, she went online and began searching for similar sightings in hopes of finding an explanation.

"After I went online and saw descriptions of other meteors, I came to the conclusion that that's what it was," she said.

She posted a report on a meteor sighting blog website, lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com, as did about 500 others from across Texas and into Oklahoma.

At least a dozen others from the Brazos Valley went online after their sighting and, in most cases, gave a description.

"Huge, fast. Was this a meteor? Never seen anything like this before," wrote College Station resident Derek Overby, an engineering associate researcher with the Texas Center for Applied Technology.

Overby's first reaction was that it was a satellite or something similar, he said when reached by phone Thursday.

"The first thing that came to mind was when the shuttle broke up over Texas," he said, referring to Space Shuttle Columbia. "To me it looked like someone had shot a large firework sideways.""

He happened to be outside his apartment off of Copperfield Drive when the meteor passed over, he said.

"It looked fairly close and was pretty large," he said. "I was expecting to hear it hit the ground or something. It didn't look like it was very high."

Ramsey agreed, saying the size of the meteor was notable to her as well.

"If the moon had been full at the height it was, it would have been close to the same size," she said.