My husband and I were coming home on 96 highway just N. E. of Carl Junction, Mo. which is just N. of Joplin, Mo. We approached the last cross road before our turn onto 171 highway,. Between the side road on our S. and the 171 highway in front of us a mile down the road I noticed a very low set of lights. There were 2 white lights in front (that we're more like windows than lights because there was I beam from them) and the rest on the object was red. I slowed down to a crawl and pointed it out to my husband asking him , " What is that " ? He said just glancing, " oh, it's just a tower." I replied, " that is not a tower, there is nothing under it!". He looked again and I pointed out that you could clearly see the lights of Carl Junction under with no obstruction. I rolled the window down and there was no noise coming from it at all. We went to the intersection and turned around. We got back where we were and it was completely gone. I drove down the side road to see if it had landed in the field it was hovering over and it had not. I have seen strange things in the sky before but, I have never ever seen anything like this before this close in my life. I didn't report this because I didn't know who to report it to and was unaware of the other sightings in the area at this time.