California, Nevada and Arizona residents witnessed a surprising scene, when an unidentified luminous object torched the night sky.
Although it was initially assumed to be a meteor, the bright light apparently was nothing more than Russian space debris reentry, according to officials.
The confirmation comes from Lt. Colonel Martin O'Donnell from the U.S. Strategic Command, who said that the unidentified flying light that swooped across the night sky was some sort of Russian space debris.
The government official told NBC News that the California-based Vandenberg Air Force Base was keeping tabs on the Russian SL4 rocket. One of the missions of the joint space operation center in the Vandenberg base is to track and identify anthropic objects.
The U.S. Strategic Command Public Affairs Office made clear that the Russian debris reentered the atmosphere somewhere over the state of Arizona. The authority also mentioned that the rocket got lift-off on Dec. 21.
It is not the first time this year that Russian space debris gets confused with a meteor.
In July, Australian witnesses called the authorities when they saw a trailing white light across the sky. As it later turned out, the "meteor" came off as part of the third stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket. The official purpose of the Russian rocket was the delivery of weather satellites to orbit.
When the white light crossed the Nevada sky, American civilians' reactions flooded social media.
Big big #fireball moved in the sky very slow with a #streak over ventura. @KNX1070 @NBCLA at 6pm
— issradio (@issradio) December 23, 2015
Weird flaming streak of debris in the sky south of Las Vegas just after 6PM. Anyone else see it? pic.twitter.com/ax13zm2jAx — Brand Hunt (@brandhunt) December 23, 2015
Some humorous witnesses even speculated that the blazing light might be Santa, in a final checkup run before his Christmas world tour.
Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory initially affirmed that the light is most likely a meteor or space debris.
"The most likely thing people saw was the super heated column of air produced by a very small piece of interplanetary debris, something the size of a small pebble," Krupp explained.
As astronomy enthusiasts knew of a Geminid meteor shower in mid-December, some suggested that the bright light might be connected to the phenomena. However, experts said that the Geminid shower ended close to Dec. 17.
Sources from air traffic control and weather monitoring declared that the light was not an airplane. The McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas also stated its opinion on the subject matter.
#BREAKING McCarran airport saying object flying through the sky is NOT a plane or aircraft
— NBC KSNV News 3 (@News3LV) December 23, 2015
The mysterious flying blaze was quite similar to another one which was visible in early November, which Army officials said was an unarmed test missile fired during U.S. Navy testing. The United States Strategic Command (USSC) described the launch on its website.
"A trident II D-5 ballistic missile is launched from the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Kentucky (SSBN 737) during a missile test at the Pacific Test Range, Nov. 7, 2015."
The white-blue tinted light which resulted from the missile testing streaked across the November sky and caught the media's attention. It was also visible across a great distance, from San Diego to the San Francisco Bay Area.
"Strategic weapons tests, along with exercises and operations, demonstrate the readiness of the nation's nuclear triad, assuring America's allies and deterring potential adversaries," USSC added.
Numerous civilians jumped to conclusions and expected the mysterious lights to be UFOs, but were repeatedly brought back to reality by government officials.
