While viewers speculated it could be a meteor shower, fireworks or something extra-terrestrial, scientists report the sight was actually man-made.
A disintegrating Space X rocket booster made a spectacular display over the Pacific Northwest as it reentered orbit.
The event was the second stage from a Space X Falcon rocket which failed to make its deorbit burn earlier this month. Instead, it burned as it reentered the atmosphere about 9pm over Seattle on Thursday night.
The disintegrating rocket part split into multiple pieces in the sky, with many residents mistaking it for a plane crash or meteor shower.
Dr. James Davenport, research assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, confirmed the lights were caused by the Falcon 9 rocket coming back down from orbit. He said the debris was likely about 30 miles into the atmosphere and it was unlikely any substantial pieces would reach the ground.
SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, launched the Falcon 9 stage 2 rocket on March 4.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell at the Center for Astrophysics said the space debris “failed to make a deorbit burn” and was reentering the atmosphere after 22 days in orbit.
McDowell said the streak “was observed from the Seattle area at about 0400 UTC Mar 26,” which is 9 p.m. local time. According to his tweets, the rocket was “supposed to immolate itself over the ocean south of Australia, to dispose of it safely.”
The Seattle office of the National Weather Service (NWS) tweeted: “The widely reported bright objects in the sky were the debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage that did not successfully have a deorbit burn.”
The National Weather Service Seattle confirmed the event after excited locals made calls to emergency services.
‘The widely reported bright objects in the sky were the debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage that did not successfully have a deorbit burn,’ the NWS in Seattle tweeted.
‘Based on the observed video, this looks more likely than a bolide meteor or similar object as they would be moving far faster on impact with our atmosphere. There are NO expected impacts on the ground in our region at this time.’
There were no reports of damage or other impacts on the ground.
The rocket delivered Starlink satellites, built in Redmond, Washington, into orbit earlier in the month, and may have been in space 22 days, experts said.
