White rectangular "door" opens in night sky, emiting orange beam of light

As two college students, my friend and I were driving on I-80 outside Omaha, heading West toward Lincoln late at night around Thanksgiving time.  Something made us both lean forward and to look through the top of the winshield at the same time.  It was as if a door opened in the night sky, rectangular in shape.  The light coming from the door appeared to be white.  Out of the door dropped an orange beam of light that did not touch the ground.  Distance could not be determined, but it appeared to be overhead at a high altitude.  Don't remember how it disappeared, but remember we both leaned back in our seats at the same time and we were still driving on I-80.  Don't know how much time elapsed between first sighting and our leaning back and resuming the trip.  To me, the experience was not frightening, but the driver of the car became very aggitated and said he "never wanted to discuss what had happened again." I found it odd, because, to me, nothing had happened.
Date of incident may be approximate, although the witness does not indicate that fact.  PD