NEW PHOTO: Mysterious light flying across the West Coast sky tonight. More at 8 p.m. on KRON https://t.co/v2563vnr3J pic.twitter.com/zViBDoqmqY
— KRON 4 News (@kron4news) December 23, 2015
Social media sites lit up last night with reports of a "mysterious, streaking light" in the Bay Area sky. Speculation whizzed about just as fast, with UFO-minded people videotaping, photographing, and tweeting images of a pitch-black horizon pierced by a blurry spot of light. This morning, the flying object has been identified, and the explanation is pretty pedestrian: It's a piece of garbage.
@KTLA so this just happened in Ventura.... #ufo pic.twitter.com/hLT8dUVX1G
— Kolbe Gillette (@TheRealKolbabe) December 23, 2015
In an Associated Press report carried by the Marin Independent Journal, military officials say the streak of light was actually debris from a Russian Rocket re-entering the atmosphere. The spacecraft (an SL-4) was launched on Monday, and this was its booster returning to Earth in a spectacular fashion. It was visible all over the West Coast.
Last night, civilian guesses ranged from a shooting star, to a meteor, to satellite debris, to something more Sci-Fi.
· Fireball crossing western sky was debris from Russian rocket [Marin Independent Journal]