A slow-moving fireball in the sky sparked awe across southeast Wisconsin Tuesday night.
"We were watching it happen, and it's moving so slowly, but it's also silent, so it was kind of eerie," Dave Ruzicka told TMJ4 News.
"It looks like a Transformers movie," Cole Boettcher explained.
Bob Bonadurer, the planetarium director at the Milwaukee Public Museum, says the leading theory is that people saw space junk speeding through Earth's atmosphere.
"Immediately, my reaction is jealousy. I could've seen it because it was so cool," Bonadurer said.
He says space junk falls to Earth about once a day on average.
"We have 10,000 satellites in space, so the chances are parts of those satellites, either decaying or being ripped apart by a meteoroid," Bonadurer explained. "They start entering the atmosphere at about 20 miles per second. Think of waving your hand about 20 miles a second. If you could, your hand would start on fire. So they’re descending at a very high speed, and all that friction causes the burnup."
Watch: UNUSUAL SIGHTING: Expert explains Tuesday's fireball in the sky
The chance of space debris hitting someone directly is small, Bonadurer stated. Definitive information on the debris' path or where it came from is unclear at this point.
However, those who were captivated will remember that night for a long time.
"The video just doesn't do it justice. It was so neat to see," Kelley Ruzicka said.
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