Turns out the series of bright lights people saw streaking across the night sky on Wednesday came from a Chinese rocket that had reentered the atmosphere over California.
Anyone else jus see these huge fireball sparkle things shoot over Vegas. Was crazy lasted 30 seconds.
U.S. Strategic Command "removed a Chinese CZ-7 rocket body from the U.S. satellite catalog as a decayed object after it reentered the atmosphere July 28, 2016, over North America," spokesperson Maj. Matthew Miller told BuzzFeed News.
The removal took place around 11:36 CT and was in the vicinity of California, though people as far away as Colorado saw the bright lights it left in its path.
The rocket belongs to the Chinese National Space Administration, Miller said.
A lot of people wanted to know what caused the display.
Witnessed a meteor shower 😅
Some people screamed UFO immediately.
Okay so apparently there was a meteor shower. Me and livi thought it was aliens. @livilouu13 #meteor #utah #SLC
Others thought it was probably a meteor.
Full video of meteor-like event @BadAstronomer
Or maybe a special space phenomenon.
Green & gold multi-piece meteor just flew south of Bridgeport and the Bodie Hills, California #easternsierra
Meteorologist Brad Panovich suggested shortly after the event that it was a Chinese rocket body reentering the atmosphere.
#SpaceJunk reentry +/- 9 hrs. it was + CZ-7 Rocket Body