What was this? Experts explain strange sky light seen from Antigua

SEATTLE — Burning debris from a rocket lit up Pacific Northwest skies Thursday night, the National Weather Service in Seattle said.

“The widely reported bright objects in the sky were debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage that did not successfully have a deorbit burn,” the service said in a tweet about the astral occurrence that was seen shortly after 9 p.m.

Reports flooded in from several viewers across Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.

Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said the debris was traveling through the atmosphere at 17,000 miles an hour.

Viewer Amy Warren captured video of streaking lights in West Seattle. (Video courtesy: Amy Warren)

Instead of a controlled reentry, the rocket eventually burned up as it reentered the atmosphere, putting on the spectacular light show for all to see.

Space expert Jim Todd with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry told KATU-TV in Portland, where the light show was just as stunning, that his gut reaction after seeing video of the objects was, “This is definitely man-made.”

“How long it took to burn up, that’s classic of a man made (object). How long it was burning up and how it was breaking apart — where a meteor goes much faster,” he said. “This is a rare event. We have anticipated this, maybe, but this has caught everybody by surprise, and we have the right conditions to see it tonight. It was visible as far as Seattle to Boise to Bend to Portland.”

Adam Miller said he was out for a walk with his wife in Tigard, Oregon when he saw a bright light coming over Bull Mountain. He said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“Absolutely crazy,” he told KATU. “I’m also a retired police officer, so I’ve seen some really crazy things in my life. I used to work along the U.S.-Mexico border. I’ve seen all kinds of stuff happening, with drones and flares launched in the air and aircraft as such, and even with flying, I’ve never seen anything [like it]. It was almost surreal.”

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Many witnesses described the same thing — that it looked like a helicopter that may have been coming in low, and then it broke up into hundreds of lights that streaked across the sky.

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Video: John Clauson

There were no reports of damage or other impacts on the ground.

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(Stanley Gruginski via Chime In)

The rocket delivered Starlink satellites, part of Elon Musk’s satellite program built in Redmond, Washington, into orbit earlier this week, the Seattle Times reported.The satellites provide broadband internet access that can reach remote locations on the planet.

SpaceX said Wednesday that the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth and landed as planned on its ocean-going barge off the coast of Florida.

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