Rocket debris light

If you live in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, you may have seen an odd meteor streaking across the sky Thursday night (March 25). However, that was no lump of space rock or comet — it was likely SpaceX flotsam and jetsam falling and wrecking in Earth's environment, specialists say.

On March 4, SpaceX dispatched a cluster of 60 Starlink web satellites to circle on board a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. Specialists think the returning upper phase of that rocket is the thing that caused the previous evening's sky show, which spotted the sky with brilliant gleaming specks that got across the sky. Nearby reports fixed the occasion at soon after 12 PM EDT (0400 GMT) on Friday (March 26), or around 9 p.m. neighborhood time Thursday on the U.S. West Coast.