Tulsa Planetarium Manager Discusses Meteor That Lit Up Oklahoma Sky

A fireball lit up the sky early Friday morning as a meteor entered the atmosphere above Oklahoma.

The National Weather Service said its Lightning Mapper detected a sonic boom from the meteor over Wagoner County.

Experts said sending pictures or video to the American Meteor Society will help determine velocity, size, and possibly help predict future meteors.

It's not every day you see a sight like this.

"It's a reminder that space is up there and it can occasionally make our lives just a little more interesting," Tulsa Air and Space Museum's Planetarium Manager, Bryan Kyle said.

He said this isn't the first time an object ended its long space journey here in Oklahoma.

"Oklahoma has had a couple of impact events in its history. There was what we call 'The Lost City Meteor,' that exploded over Oklahoma in the 1970's and fragments of that are still being found today," Kyle said.

Once these meteor fragments reach earths surface, they are called "meteorites," and you might be surprised how much they could be worth.

"Meteorites are actually reasonably valuable," Kyle said. "It mainly depends on what's in them, where they fell from. If they are particularly noteworthy events, they could fetch a fairly high price. Meteorites that are, say, the size of a fist, you could get $300-400 for a rock that size."

Although, you may not want to grab your jackets and metal detectors just yet.

"I don't think they'll find much. If I had to guess, considering how small this likely was, any fragments are probably going to be anywhere from grain of sand to gravel," Kyle said.

He said if a meteorite did make landfall, it would be the property of the land owner.

People from western Oklahoma to as far away as Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas reported seeing or hearing the meteor Friday morning.