Mysterious fireball streaks across the skies of southwest U.S.

September 15, 2011 – PHOENIX, Az – What exactly was seen in the skies across the Southwestern U.S. Wednesday night? Was it a meteor, a falling satellite or, perhaps, something more mysterious? A streak of light that some are describing as a fireball, was seen shooting across the night sky and law enforcement and media from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Las Vegas were fielding calls of the reported sighting. Lt. Justin Griffin of the Maricopa Sheriff Department in Arizona was trying to guess what the strange light was. “Believe it was a meteorite traveling from north to south across Maricopa County,” Griffin said. “The 911 call center received a flood of calls.” Griffin said there were no reports of impact or damage. “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,” Curt Kaplan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service told CNN affiliate KCAL. There are no reports of aircraft incidents across Southern California, said FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor. The sighting quickly became a hot topic on a number of social media websites with most asking, “Did you see it? What was that?” NASA officials announced this week the now-defunct Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is expected to fall back to Earth in the coming weeks. There was no word on whether what was seen Wednesday was that satellite. –CNN