Mysterious streaks of light appear in the California sky

Mysterious streaks of light were seen in the sky over the Sacramento area on Friday night, startling St. Patrick’s Day revelers who later posted videos of the sudden sight on social media.

Jaime Hernandez was at the King Kong Brewing Company in Sacramento celebrating St. Patrick’s Day when members of the group noticed the lights. Hernandez quickly began filming. On Saturday he said he was done in about 40 seconds.

“We were mostly shocked, but in awe to have witnessed this,” Hernandez said in an email. “None of us have ever seen anything like it.”

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

Jonathan McDowell says it can. McDowell is an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. McDowell said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press that he was 99.9% sure the rays of light were coming from burning space debris.

McDowell said the Japanese communications package that transmits information from the International Space Station to a communications satellite and back to Earth became obsolete in 2017 when the satellite stopped working. McDowell added that the equipment, which weighed 310 kilograms (683 pounds), was jettisoned from the space station in 2020 because it took up precious space and would burn up completely on return.

The burning pieces of debris created an “amazing light show in the sky,” McDowell said, estimating that the debris was about 40 miles high and traveling at thousands of miles per hour.

He added that the US Space Force confirmed the return trajectory over California for the interorbital communications system, and the timing corresponds to what people saw in the sky. The Space Force could not immediately be reached Saturday with questions.

_____

McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.