Thank goodness Bruce Willis is around, or the Midwest would have been a smoking crater this morning!

Authorities in several Midwestern states were flooded Wednesday night with reports of a gigantic fireball lighting up the sky, the National Weather Service said. Yes, gigantic fireball - although a few did say it could possibly be a meteor - but there was really no other way to describe the astronomical event.

Just after 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, folks across about 6 states in the Upper Midwest - Minnesota, Iowa, northern Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin - saw this and for some reason started calling 911 and local sheriffs. (Did anyone alert the crazies in Roswell?) The fireball moved from west to east, but broke up just before the horizon into smaller bits and then faded from sight. The National Weather Service doesn't know what caused it, but said "there is a meteor shower called Gamma Virginids that occurs from April 4 to April 21, with peak activity expected on Wednesday and Thursday." (Sure, likely story. I vote triple secret air force experiment or Xenu and the Galactic Confederacy.)

People also reported an extended sonic boom, lasting about 30 seconds, and said homes and trees were shaking.

Luckily, Bruce and the gang anticipated this and blew the certain Armageddon-inducing space destroyer into smithereens, hence the fireball everyone saw. Thanks, guys, that was close!