Several people in the Valley saw the mysterious light that streaked across the sky in the southwestern United States Wednesday night.
Kimberly Curto was at her brother's high school football game.
"I didn't know what it was at first," she said. "Everybody was pointing at it and screaming. They thought it was a UFO or something."
Holly Pickard described what she saw: "This massive green-like ball shooting through the sky horizontally and it had, like, a big old white tail. It was so bright and crazy and beautiful. I couldn't believe I was witnessing it."
Brian McElhatten captured two photos of the object as it streaked across the sky.
"You could see pieces falling off," he said. "It almost looked like a Roman candle flying horizontally through the sky. It lasted maybe four to five seconds.
A NASA scientist said the glowing object, seen as far west as Los Angeles, was mostly likely a fragment of an asteroid entering Earth's atmosphere.
Phoenix police and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office received several calls about the light, which appeared about 7:45 p.m.
Police Sgt. Steve Martos emailed media representatives: "We received four calls (total) regarding the light in the sky. Our air unit, myself and other officers also observed it as well. We all made our wishes and went back to work. Nothing more to report. Have a safe night."
Sheriff's Lt. Justin Griffin said the 911 center "receievd a flood of calls," but no reports of impact or damage.
In California, Curt Kaplan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told KCAL: "People are, indeed, reporting they saw a light head from west to east across the sky. We got reports from CHP and the FAA about callers seeing the light. It is reasonable to say that it may be a meteor."
The sighting quickly became a hot topic on a number of social media websites, with most people asking, "Did you see it? What was that?"
NASA said the object was believed to be an asteroid that probably incinerated before falling to earth.
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