AP – Mysterious streaks of light were seen in the sky in the Sacramento area in United States on Friday night, shocking St Patrick’s Day revellers who then posted videos on social media of the surprising sight.
Jaime Hernandez was at a production company in Sacramento for a St Patrick’s Day celebration when some among the group noticed the lights. Hernandez quickly began filming.
It was over in about 40 seconds, he said on Saturday.
“Mainly, we were in shock, but amazed that we got to witness it,” Hernandez said in an email. “None of us had ever seen anything like it”, he added.
The company owner posted Hernandez’s video to Instagram, asking if anyone could solve the mystery.
Jonathan McDowell said he can. McDowell is an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. McDowell said on Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press that he’s 99.9 per cent confident the streaks of light were from burning space debris.
The flaming bits of wreckage created a “spectacular light show in the sky”, McDowell said.
The US Space Force confirmed the re-entry path over California for the Inter-Orbit Communication System, and the timing is consistent with what people saw in the sky, he added.
