EAST TEXAS EXPLOSION!

Hello Everyone,
7-07-04
I live in East Texas. About 2hrs ago (9:35pm central) I got a call from a news reporter. He wants to know about an explosion that just acquired, that people are reporting.

Being an Astronomer, the first thing that came to mind was a big meteor. But of the 100s of people that witnessed it, no one saw a tail (of fire/ particles). So we can rule out anything that came from space, as all the objects that come through the atmosphere will have a tail of some sort.

I'm sure if it were a supernovae; I would immediately here about it. Plus we would still be able to see something.

Here is the weird part! People over a ~100 mile diameter all claim that the object was straight over head!!
Umm, that means the explosion had to be extremely high. However most claim that it appeared to be in the atmosphere.

Also the meteorologist saw a big spot on a Doppler image, confirming it was in the atmosphere!!

Does anyone have any type of clue as to what this was?

BTW, sky conditions were clear.
NO AIRPLANES WERE REPORTED MISSING

Thanks for the help.

Clear Skies,
Justin Parish

Could it have also been a sonic boom from a supersonic jet?

I have not seen this (no broadband) , but apparently there is video of the meteor (fireball, bolide, whatever) caught on an officer's camera.

http://www.wfaa.com/cgi-bin/bi/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.wfaa.com/040701_1200meteor_wz.wmv

requires Windows Media Player 9

(link found at http://www.coasttocoastam.com/)

It was indeed a meteor. See my post in Solar System Observing. Where you are in east TX, maybe the observers there saw it "head-on" just before it burned up. If you read the message board on WFAA-TV Dallas (ABC affilate) you can read dozens of reports that included views of a tail. It really was spectacular. It's amazing that I've spent hours sitting in my back yard during so-called meteor showers, only to see a slight streak or two, then just by luck I saw a rare, extremely bright meteor. We hit the meteor lotto that night. If you haven't seen the video, I suggest that you do. Send a message to me - I can send a link that doesn't require you to register.