Is it a UFO? Or a comet? A video of mysterious streaks of light seen in the sky in California's Sacramento area Friday night, has gone viral on social media.
The 40-second video was shot by Jaime Hernandez, who was at the King Cong Brewing Company in Sacramento for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, as reported by the Associated Press. He began filming it when someone in the group noticed the lights.
Hernandez posted the video on his Instagram account, along with a caption that read, "Crazy Fireworks. This flew over the brewery tonight. What do you guys think? UFO."
“Mainly, we were in shock, but amazed that we got to witness it,” Hernandez was quoted by AP as saying. “None of us had ever seen anything like it.”
The viral video has got people wondering, about the mystery lights.
"Better watch for falling spy balloons," wrote a user.
"It’s the Avengers, here to fight inflation," commented another user.
"Autobots arriving," wrote a third user.
But, according to the Associated Press report, the streaks of light were from burning space debris.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, informed the Associated Press that the spectacular light show in the sky was flaming bits of wreckage. He estimated the debris was about 40 miles high, going thousands of miles per hour.
McDowell said that a Japanese communications package that relayed information from the International Space Station to a communications satellite and then back to Earth became obsolete in 2017 when the satellite was retired. The equipment, weighing 310 kilograms (683 pounds), was jettisoned from the space station in 2020 because it was taking up valuable space and would burn up completely upon reentry.
