Mysterious streak of light across the Bay Area explained
Fireball in night sky was satellite
A Starlink satellite reentered the atmosphere, creating a light show over Bay Area skies.
OAKLAND, Calif. - A mysterious light streaking the Bay Area sky on Thursday night sparked the curiosity of those who witnessed it and those who are seeing the videos online.
Was it a meteor? A piece of fire debris?
Gerald McKeegan, Adjunct Astronomer at Chabot Space & Science Center, told KTVU on Friday that the light was a piece of space junk – which can ultimately be linked to Elon Musk.
"Yes this was a Starlink satellite that was in a defunct orbit," said McKeegan. "It was launched back in August 2020, and it’s been in a slowly decaying orbit for a couple of years now, and it finally re-entered the atmosphere last night and a lot of people saw it."
Curious light streaking the sky seen throughout the Bay Area, captured on video
KTVU received several calls, as well as photo and video submissions, of a mysterious light streaking across the sky that resembled a meteor on Thursday evening.
When SpaceX launches Starlink satellites, the upper stage of the Falcon rocket pushes the satellites into their initial orbit, the astronomer said, and then releases them.
The upper stage then becomes, essentially, a piece of space junk.
The astronomer explained that the piece of space junk is in an elliptical orbit around Earth, which slowly decays.
Eventually, after a few years, the upper stage gets so low that atmospheric drag causes it to fall out of orbit and re-enter the atmosphere, where dynamic pressure causes it to burn and break up.
"This one broke up, actually out over the ocean, so there was no danger to anybody on the ground," said McKeegan. "This satellite wait about 580 pounds, and it’s just a lot of hardware."
Curious light streaking the sky seen throughout the Bay Area, captured on video
KTVU is getting calls, as well as photo and video submissions, of what appears to be a meteor that streaked across the sky Thursday evening. The calls have been coming from throughout the Bay Area. Officials with Lick Observatory of Mount Hamilton told us one of their staff was an eyewitness to the spectacle at around 7:45 p.m.
It's part of a growing number of objects in orbit, according to Mike Wall, a senior space writer with Space.com.
"Over time, in like five or 10 years, you could have like 75,000 to 80,000 satellites up there," said Wall. "Those are the projects that are just underway now, and as the cost of launching goes down and the cost of building satellites goes down, I mean, who knows how much more that’s going to accelerate in the future."
Starlink is the project of SpaceX that Musk founded. It's a satellite network that provides high-speed broadband internet service across the globe.
Meteors are usually much faster and end with a flash of light.
The light was not the SpaceX Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, Nelson said.
The SpaceX launch on Thursday was at 9:26 p.m., which was about two hours after the mysterious streak of light.