Hundreds of people in the Vancouver and Seattle areas witnessed a mysterious light show on Thursday night that looked like meteor showers and alarmed residents, causing some confusion as to its origins.
Astronomers that took a closer look at the light show were able to determine that the event was caused by the re-entry of a second stage booster of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The National Weather Service's Seattle office confirmed the assessment and said in a post on Twitter that it believes the light show was caused by falling debris. The agency said that it does not expect any impact to occur on the ground at this time.
"Here's the unofficial information we have so far. 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 agency said.
Community astronomer for Canadian Planetariums, Bill Burnyeat, said that the entry speed of the debris was so great that the material all became luminous as it was burning up in the atmosphere.
"So the pressure is so intense that even components made out of metal will glow incandescent and burn up. So it's very bright because it's actually luminous and burning," Burnyeat said.
The Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University said that the lights in the Pacific Northwest were part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had launched in early March. The astronomy center said that the debris likely spent around 22 days in orbit before it re-entered the atmosphere.
SpaceX has been launching rockets into space from states such as California, Texas, and Florida. Residents from those areas have become accustomed to seeing night launches and light shows overhead.
However, people in the Pacific Northwest are less accustomed. The National Weather Service said that it had received dozens of calls from residents that were concerned when they saw the bright lights in the sky.
As of Friday, SpaceX has yet to weigh in on the Pacific Northwest's mystery light show. NASA and SpaceX's founder, Elon Musk, have also not yet made any comments.
