In the dark of the night, a bright flash of light caught people all over the Intermountain West by surprise and space experts say it was likely a meteor.

“A rock from space found its way into the skies over what I think was probably western or southern Utah. And not just a tiny rock, this one was considerably larger,” said NASA Ambassador, Patrick Wiggins.

Meteors are normally the size of a grain of sand, Wiggins said. Click here to watch more of his interview.

What made it especially bright, Wiggins says, is that as it came close to the ground, it exploded creating several smaller meteors.

“Of all the things I’ve seen in the many years studying the sky it’s not number one but it’s got to be close. It’s very high on my list,” said Wiggins.

Seth Jarvis, director of the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, says the meteor that flew by just after midnight Tuesday was probably about the size of an oven and traveling at about 80,000 mph.

The fireball roughly coincided with the annual Leonid meteor shower.

People from St. George to Logan and as far west as Reno, Nevada reported seeing the flash.

If you have pictures or video of the event, you can upload them to our Web site. Click here .

More Video:
Surveillance cameras operated by the University of Utah captured the streaking meteor about 100 miles above the Earth.

Watch video from a U of U security camera on Frisco Peak

More U of U security camera video