A meteor brightened up the skies above the Bay Area in California in what experts say is debris from Halley's Comet. At around 7:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Oct. 17, hundreds of residents from Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Cruz reported a loud boom, explosions and streaks of light. Residents also posted photographs and videos of the comet via Twitter and YouTube.

It was reported by NASA that the Orionid meteor shower of 2012 should peak on Saturday night into Sunday morning. In the respective report, NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office employee Bill Cooke stated the following:

"Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, the source of the Orionids. Since 2006, the Orionids have been one of the best showers of the year, with counts in some years up to 60 or more meteors per hour."

Edward Pierce, a Bay Area resident, gave his take on the rare event to KGO by stating, "Happened to look over, saw like a crescent shaped object, reddish orange in color. As it went away it started getting larger. Kind of expanding."

According to the National Weather Service, the warm temperatures and clear skies helped make the bright lights more viewable. Jonathon Braidman, an astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center, gave the scientific explanation of the meteor shower.

"Basically, you saw small car-sized pieces of rock and metal from the ashtray belt, crashing through layers of earth's atmosphere, ionizing and setting the air on fire in its wake," he said.

The Orionids are one of two meteor showers that occur due to icy pieces of Halley's Comet. Eta Aquarids is another shower that peaks every year in early May. Arguably the most notable comet in the earth's history, Halley's Comet usually passes the planet every 75 to 76 years. The last time it was visible to the naked eye was in February of 1986.