Mysterious streaks of light spotted in California sky

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Mysterious streaks of light were seen in the sky in the Sacramento area on Friday night, shocking St. Patrick's Day celebrants who then posted a video of the amazing sight on social media, nzherald.co.nz writes.

Jaime Hernandez was at the King Cong Brewing Company in Sacramento for a St. Patrick's Day celebration when some of the group noticed the lights. Hernandez quickly started filming. It was over in about 40 seconds.

were shocked and amazed to have witnessed this. None of us have ever seen anything like it”, — Hernandez said in an email.

The brewery owner posted a video of Hernandez on Instagram asking if anyone could solve the mystery.

Jonathan McDowell replied that he could. McDowell — astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. McDowell told the Associated Press on Saturday that he was 99.9% sure the streaks of light were coming from burning space debris.

McDowell said the Japanese communications packet, which transmitted information from the International Space Station to a communications satellite and then back to Earth, became obsolete in 2017 after the satellite was decommissioned. The 310 kg equipment was dropped from the space station in 2020 because it took up valuable space and completely burned up on entry into the atmosphere.

According to McDowell, the flaming debris created a “spectacular light show in the sky.” He estimated that the debris was about 40 miles high, moving at a speed of a thousand miles per hour.

He added that the US Space Force had confirmed the re-entry trajectory over California for the inter-orbital communication system, and the timing was consistent with what people had seen in the sky. On Saturday, it was not possible with great efforts on this issue.

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