A fireball seen streaking slowly across the northern sky before breaking into two pieces and vanishing late Wednesday left residents throughout Southern California and beyond wondering what they had just witnessed. The unidentified object was seen, and in some cases, recorded on cell phones, in the Southland skies shortly after 9:30 p.m. Reports of the strange celestial activity flooded into regional law enforcement agencies from people who believed they’d just witnessed an aircraft breaking apart mid-air. Astronomer Phil Plait said the object was also reported in Utah and Colorado. He said, “The meteor over western US is almost definitely human space debris like a rocket booster or the like. Slow moving and broke apart.” A Sheriff’s Station in central San Gabriel Valley reported, “Our helicopter crew and a pair of deputies on patrol witnessed it also and it appeared to be a meteorite shower breaking up in the atmosphere.
Photo credit: Tom Highfill
