SAN ANTONIO – Wednesday evening around 8 p.m. KSAT viewers started reporting a bright light in the sky.
Turns out that flash across the sky was a fireball, better known as a meteor.
Eric Schlegel is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UTSA.
He said most meteors are the size of a grain of sand, and people don't often see them.
"When the big ones come in, they often will break up in the atmosphere, and when they break up, they often leave a long trail. That's probably what everyone was seeing," Schlegel said.
He said the fact that so many people reported seeing this meteor, suggests that it was a fairly big, bright event.
"I'm always surprised by how many people are paying attention, because sometimes you get the feeling that nobody looks up from their cell phone," he said.
The American Meteor Society can use all of the sightings to try to figure out where the meteor went.
Looking at who saw it and where helps experts who are looking for the meteorite, any part of the meteor that makes it to the ground.
Finding the meteorite is like getting their hands on ancient history.
"They probably represent material from the beginning of the solar system," Schlegel said.
That's an opportunity scientists don't get every day.