The Latest: Flash of light, loud boom likely from meteor

PHOENIX – The Latest on a bright flash of light and loud boom Thursday morning over the skies in metro Phoenix (all times local):

10 a.m.

An expert in meteorites says a bright flashing light and loud boom over the skies in metro Phoenix looks like a single meteor burning up as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere.

Laurence Garvie, curator of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University, says radar footage shows that meteorites may have fallen to the ground early Thursday morning near the eastern Arizona community of Cibecue.

Video footage shows the skies went from dark to instantly bright — and then grew even brighter.

It produced a loud boom that awoke people sleeping in Phoenix.

The flash in the sky finally decreased in intensity and fizzled out.

Meteorites are black rocks ranging in size from a pea to a grapefruit.

6:58 a.m.

Phoenix-area residents heard a boom and saw a flash of light in the sky early in the morning, prompting speculation that a meteor was the source.

Media reports say the boom and flash were noticed shortly before 4 a.m. There were no immediate reports of damage.

The Arizona Geological Survey’s seismic network didn’t pick up any impacts.

Michael Conway of the survey says that could mean the meteor broke up in the sky and that the impacts of any remnants were too small to be recorded.