approximately 11 bright orange objects sighted travelling SW to NE at 23:40 on 02/02/02 in Urbana, IL.I was driving home at 11:30 last Saturday evening after visiting with friends, and at first I saw 4 or 5 objects all travelling at the same rate of speed, all heading the same direction - SW to NE. I stopped the car to watch. They were all about the same size, and seemed to be very small objects, very high up in the sky - all orange colored like the embers of a fire. One of them quickly flashed white very brightly, and then quite shortly after 'fizzled out' (there was no sound), and could then not be seen. After the 4 passed north of where I was, another object exactly the same as the others also travelling the same direction was moving behind first group.After that I didn't quite know what I had seen, so I continued on my way home. I stopped to get some gas and had just left the gas station at 11:43 when I saw another set of the same objects exactly as I had seen a few minutes before. I pulled over again to watch, and this time saw another 5 or 6 of these objects, and one flashed violently and then fizzled out again like the other, and as I watched one very carefully I could actually see little pieces flake off and flash brightly and then disappear. I watch this group of objects as I did the previous group, until they passed north and I could no longer see them.I do believe the UFOs I observed were pieces of some object which entered the atmostphere and began to disintegrate, breaking into pieces. I do not know, however, what that object was. I read NASA Science news frequently, and haven't heard of anything to watch out for, so I am definitely intrigued as to what objects I saw last weekend.I'm currently a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, studying English. I studied astronomy in high school with the intent of making this my profession, but earned a degree in music education instead. Many people were out at the time I saw the objects last weekend, and I am certain there are other observers.