The loud unexplained sound that rattled homes and unnerved people across the Athens area on Saturday may have been a sonic boom created by a meteor, a retired University of Georgia professor said Wednesday. "I think if it wasn't the military, it may well have been a meteor, which may have been natural or a piece of space junk returning to Earth," said Michael Covington, an artificial intelligence expert who's been involved in astronomy for 50 years. Because the boom was deafening across a wide area, a ground-based explosion could be ruled out as the cause, according to Covington. "It seemed to be loud at a bunch of different places from the Athens Country Club to the Epps Bride Parkway area" in a north-to-south direction, he said. Covington heard rattling in his Athens home at 1:26 p.m. Saturday. "I noted the exact time so I could look up earthquakes. I was sure it was an earthquake, but there was no earthquake reported," he said. A sonic boom created by a meteor is not common, "but it