Explosion with a fire ballOn 10-23-2005 at about 0200 hours CDT, in the northeastern part of the sky around Preston, KS, there was a large round ball of fire that appeared. The size appeared to be that of a small bus. The ball exploded into a bright flash of light that completly lit the night sky up, and right after that, a small, round, sphere the size of a giant beach ball shot out and to the south. Right after that everything disappeared, and the sky returned to normal, and everything was as it was before--nice and calm. During the time the fire ball was seen, there were no signs of any aircraft in the area, there was no sound with the explosion, and there were no smells of any kind. This could have been a meteor, however, I have never seen one do what this did. I have been told by several other individuals that they also saw this at the same time. They were about 3 miles away looking to the west when they witnessed it, and it appeared to be less than 1 mile away from me and about 15,000 feet vertically. I was looking east when I saw it.((NUFORC Note: We would welcome reports from any other witnesses to this event. PD))