Mysterious lights streak across San Diego sky, California
Image credit: Mysterious light streaks across the San Diego sky on August 15, 2016
Mysterious lights were seen streaking across the sky in San Diego, California on Monday night, August 15, 2016. The prime suspect, at this time, is man-made space debris.
The lights were reported between 21:35 to 21:37 local time in the sky over the 3300 block of El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights, NBC 7 reported.
One of their viewers described the sight as a "strange aircraft with lights on the bottom." Another NBC 7 viewer said the stream of light "began as a single blur then expanded into a straight line" before vanishing. "It repeated a few times. I'm not sure where it was over."
Steve Flanders, the public affairs coordinator at Palomar Observatory, said he does not believe the light were the result of a Perseid meteor shower or other meteor.
"A meteor will move across the sky far more quickly than in this case. The video is interesting, but it is difficult to determine how far the lights were above the horizon," Flanders said. "It is possible that the lights were associated with some sort of military rocket launch. The tail looks like the flames that escape from a rocket engine during ascent," he said.
U.S. Navy said, however, they did not operate any launchings that would have caused the lights.
John Young, of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park, suspects the lights were produced by some sort of space debris, not part of the Perseids.
"Perseids typically result in quick bursts of light in the sky but judging by the video, this activity was not like that. These light appeared large, moved slowly and got brighter and darker as it entered the atmosphere," Young said and added he thinks they were produced by man-made space debris.
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