Residents of Tucson, Arizona, got a glimpse of the largest meteor shower of the year on Tuesday night, according to CNN.
The display was part of the annual Geminid meteor shower which was set to start on Thursday with about 120 meteors expected per hour when the meteor peaks, CNN reported.
Astronomer Tod Lauer said he heard the blast but didn't look outside thinking it was a "sonic boom," according to CNN.
"We were eating dinner and heard a good bang that rattled the roof of our house," he said. "I dismissed it as a sonic boom."
Arizona resident Tony Kubrak said the explosion shook his house when he called local TV station KGUN.
"I see this tremendous, white, bright light in the western sky," Kubrak told KGUN. "And it was just ... it was absolutely enormous, I couldn't believe it."
According to CNN, NASA stated the shower will continue throughout the rest of the week until Monday, and that this year's Geminid shower will be "rich in fire balls"
NASA said the shower peaks around Dec. 13 and 14 and unlike other meteors, it's not caused by comets, which is why NASA astronomer Bill Cooke said the Geminid shower is his favorite, CNN reported.
"The Geminids are my favorite because they defy explanation," he said in a statement.
The Geminids are created by a "weird rocky object" called 3200 Phaethon which sheds dusty debris officials say is no where near big enough to cause the display the shower does.
"Of all the debris streams Earth passes through every year, the Geminids are by far the most massive," Cooke said, according to CNN. "When we add up the amount of dust in the Geminid stream, it outweighs other streams by factors of 5 to 500."
