Adam Floyd was burning trash on his property on the Shellhorn Road Saturday night when he saw a green, glowing light streak across the sky followed by a loud boom that seemed to shake him to the core.

“It was somewhere between 9:30 and 10 o’clock Saturday night,” Floyd said. “It was such a bright light that I looked up as it streaked across the sky – probably for about seven or eight seconds. It looked like it blew up at the end and there was a loud boom, like the hard rumble of thunder. It illuminated the sky. It was cool.”

Floyd had witnesses to the heavenly event. His friends, Molly Reeves and Richard Austin, saw the glowing, green streak of light and heard the loud boom.

“The streak of light went from east to west, almost parallel to the highway,” Floyd said. “It went right over a cotton field that was empty so you could see it all the way.”

“The boom sound like a jet breaking the sound barrier, only louder. About 20 minutes later, we heard another boom, only not nearly as loud. We saw it and heard it.  All three of us.”

Floyd said he has seen meteors or falling stars before but only as quick streaks of light.

“But this was different,” he said. “It was a glowing green light that went across the sky for several seconds and it exploded and there was this loud noise. I’d never seen anything like that.”

Floyd said on Monday morning there were several Facebook posts from others who had seen the green streak of light and heard the sonic boom.

“We saw something real unusual. We just want to know what it was,” he said.

Pike County Sheriff Russell Thomas said his office received several calls from around the Shellhorn area Saturday night and he even got calls at home.

“The calls reported strange lights in the sky and a loud noise,” Thomas said. “There was a call that a large fireball had struck the ground. We dispatched deputies out to Highway 29 toward Luverne but no evidence was found of anything striking the ground.”

Thomas said he, also was told that there were several posts of  “sightings” on Facebook.

A meteor is a small body of matter from outer space that enters the earth’s atmosphere. It becomes incandescent as a result of friction and appears as a streak of light.

Thomas said the light in the sky Saturday night was probably a meteor that was more than just a flash in the night.

“Some people just got lucky and got to see it,” he said.