If you looked up at the sky tonight, you probably saw some lights in the sky. What is it? What could it be? Who knows, but it sure caused quite a stir online with people wondering what it could be. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, took to Twitter to explain what the objects could be. He said the objects are a Japanese communications package called ICS-EF, which he said was launched to the International Space Station in 2009. McDowell explained that the object, cataloged as object 45265, orbited Earth as space junk for 3 years and re-entered over California at 9.30 p.m. If we find out what it is, we'll make sure to update this page. In the meantime, if you've taken photos or videos of these glowing lights, we'd love to see them. Callers from all over Northern California and the Bay Area regions have called our newsroom saying they have seen the lights. Email these images/videos to news@kcra.com to give us permission to use them for on-air and online purposes.
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<strong class="dateline">SACRAMENTO, Calif. —</strong> <p>If you looked up at the sky tonight, you probably saw some lights in the sky.
What is it? What could it be? Who knows, but it’s certainly caused quite a stir online, with people wondering what it could be.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, took to Twitter to explain what the objects could be. He said the objects are a Japanese communications package called ICS-EF, which he said was launched to the International Space Station in 2009.
McDowell explained that the object, cataloged as Object 45265, orbited Earth as space debris for 3 years and re-entered over California at 9.30 p.m.
If we find out what it is, we’ll make sure to update this page. For now, if you took photos or videos of the glowing lights, we’d love to see them.
Callers from all over Northern California and the Bay Area regions have called our newsroom saying they’ve seen the lights.
Email these photos/videos to news@kcra.com to give us permission to use them for on-air and online purposes.
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