A mysterious light show that illuminated the sky over parts of the Pacific Northwest on Thursday night was probably the remains of a SpaceX rocket entering the Earth’s atmosphere, authorities said.
The stream of lights, which looked like a meteor shower, spread across parts of Oregon and Washington state at about 9 p.m., fascinating witnesses and causing some confusion about its origins.
“Falling stars? Debris? Has anyone else seen this in Seattle right now?” wrote the Twitter user Fred Lu with a video of the passing debris.
Another the witness wrote: “Ummm … I just caught this flying over my SW Portland house.”
But the Seattle National Weather Service office he said on Twitter that the light show appeared to be remnants of the second-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which failed to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere after its March 4 launch.
“This is the unofficial information we have so far. The bright objects reported in the sky were the remains of a second-stage Falcon 9 rocket that did not have a successful burn. ” they wrote.
“There is no expected impact on the terrain in our region at this time,” the weather agency added.