A beam of spectacular fiery stars spurted across the sky at around 9pm tonight, and people saw it from northern Humboldt to Washington state.
In awe, viewers speculated it was anything from a plane crash to a meteor shower.
However, the light show was most likely the Falcon 9, a SpaceX rocket that sent a number of Starlink satellites into orbit.
According to Forbes magazine, “Jonathan McDowell, Harvard astronomer and leading tracker on just about everything that happens in orbit, was quick to identify the phenomenon as the remains of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that hit 60 of the Starlink. company satellites into orbit on March 4. “
The Falcon 9’s second stage of the Starlink launch on March 4 failed to cause a deorbit combustion and is now returning to orbit after 22 days. Its return was observed from the Seattle area at approximately 0400 UTC on March 26. pic.twitter.com/FQrBrUoBHh
– Jonathan McDowell (@ planet4589) March 26, 2021
Here are some videos capturing the light show.
YO OREGON WHAT HAVE I JUST SEEN KATUNews pic.twitter.com/fgplrWtgha
– Ches Allen (@ChesAllenPDX) March 26, 2021
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? I’ve never seen anything so incredible in my life. I’m impressed. It just happened over Portland about 10 minutes ago. # LiveOnK2 pic.twitter.com/L9wLEXBrcW
– Genevieve Reaume (@GenevieveReaume) March 26, 2021
Did you see it?