Some think it's a meteor shower, others thought it was a UFO or broken-up space junk. Whatever it was, people were left amazed by the lights streaking across the skies in the Pacific Northwest Thursday night (March 26), GeekWire reported.
The light show happened around 9 p.m., shocking residents and prompting some of them to send photos and videos of the spectacle on social media. While people shared their speculation and awe online, a burning question remains: what was that falling through the skies over Oregon and Washington?
An astronomer has an answer to the mystery behind this celestial moment.
It turns out those falling lights were the burning debris of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage, left over from a launch that took place more than three weeks ago, according to Jonathon McDowell. McDowell is an expert satellite-tracker at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, GeekWire wrote.
“The Falcon 9 second stage from the Mar 4 Starlink launch failed to make a deorbit burn and is now re-entering after 22 days in orbit,” McDowell tweeted.
Reporters added that those satellites are actually manufactured at SpaceX's facility in Redmond, Washington.
Nonetheless, the event was a magical moment for residents in Seattle, Portland and the rest of the Pacific Northwest. Here are some great tweets and reactions from Thursday night:
Photo: Getty Images