NASA said that the bright light and thunderous noises which were reported were due to a meteoroid entering the Earth's atmosphere on Tuesday night.
Bill Cooke of NASA's meteoroid environment office in Alabama said that this "huge event" was "definitely a meteoroid."
Local media outlets cited meteorologist Cory Behnke of the weather service in White Lake Township as saying that the first report on "lightning with thunder" from greater Detroit came at 8:15 P.M. local time.
"We checked our observational data here, and I can tell you we've not had any lightning," Behnke said, adding that it was most likely a meteoroid.