Meteor lights up the sky across St. Louis [View all]

The American Meteor Society received about 200 reports of sightings by Tuesday morning, said the society's operations manager Mike Hankey. The reports were concentrated in Missouri, but came from as far as 350 miles away in Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

A few things made Monday’s meteor exceptional, Hankey said. The size of the object burning up through earth's atmosphere caused it to be unusually bright. It also fell within about 38 miles of earth's surface in order to create a sonic boom. Finally, the location: Videos showed the meteor streaking just behind the Gateway Arch.

“For an individual person, seeing one that bright is a once in a lifetime thing,” Hankey said. “But as a planet it's not all that rare. As far as events with 100 or more witnesses reporting, this is one of 27 worldwide we’ve had so far this year.”

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