Bright Light, Loud Boom May Have Been Meteor

The Bay Area was buzzing Wednesday night after a bright streak moved across the sky. It was accompanied by a loud boom.

This happened around 7:40 p.m.

Early bets said it was a meteor.  The Orionids meteor shower is happening right now, but experts told NBC Bay Area that Wednesday's streak was not from Orion because the earth is shielding us from those meteors tonight. 

Whatever it was, it caught the attention of hundreds, if not thousands of people.

NASA Ames astronomer Peter Jennikens helped us get the photo at the top of this article and below. Jennikens said he will be up all night researching where the meteor may have landed. He will be out early Thursday morning looking for remnants. He's hoping to get more video from security cameras that might have been rolling when the meteor hit. 

Beppy Tobeler told us on our Facebook page that she saw it from Dublin Security Storage. "It was so low and close I thought it was someone setting off fireworks," Tobeler said. She said it sailed across the sky and broke up in several pieces.

Steve Siegel said he saw it from Sunnyvale. He described it as a super bright streak going north about 30 degrees into the sky. He said it lasted for 7 or 8 seconds.

 "I saw one giant, bright as close as a firework ball of light with long tail out visiting my parents in Forestville. One of the coolest things I've ever seen nothing at all like a shooting star," Jessica Collins said on our Facebook page. 

People at the Lick Observatory posted two raw clips of the what they said was a meteor breaking up over San Jose. It was taken by a security camera from the top of the observatory.