That Mysterious Light In The Sky? Probably A Noctilucent Cloud, National Weather Service Says
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Did you see it? A mysterious light in the sky seen all across California tonight is leaving many wondering, "what was that?"
Almost in the shape of a lightning strike, only this mysterious object was no flash, it floated high above us, providing a captivating view.
"Everything was dark except for this one light, reflective thing," Eppie Haas said.
Haas saw the unusual shape in the sky while driving in Yuba County.
Did you see that bright light in the sky? Here's the view from West Sacramento. pic.twitter.com/Q83JMy8PSg
— CBS Sacramento CBS13 (@CBSSacramento) December 20, 2018
"I was like, 'whoa this is something rare that we're not going to see again,'" Haas said.
Laundish Morozoda took photos of the light while driving in Auburn, calling it a sign from heaven.
"It's very perfect," Morozoda said. "I'm happy when I see this."
Willie Wood watched it from West Sacramento.
"It definitely appeared really close, it did not look like the distance of a shooting star, when you see a shooting star in the sky," Wood said. "It looked pretty close."
Video from a dash camera in Stockton showed the streak as formed in the sky.
That same moment was also captured from a Nest camera in San Francisco.
The National Weather Service Bay Area is calling this a noctilucent cloud, which can be formed from a meteor or space debris entering the upper atmosphere.
There were several space events around the time of the sighting.
The formation appeared after NASA posted a picture on Twitter showing a crew of astronauts undocking from the space station.
Three @Space_Station crew members returned to Earth Thursday, safely landing at 12:02am ET in Kazakhstan. Over 197 days, they circled the globe 3,152 times, covering 83.3 million miles and completing hundreds of @ISS_Research experiments. Learn more: https://t.co/3h2k8N6XPR pic.twitter.com/IjYIVTlJg2
— NASA (@NASA) December 20, 2018
A planned Vandenberg Air Force Base rocket launch around that time was scrubbed and never took off. This incredible sight, high above, forcing all of us to stop for a moment, and wonder.
What did we just watch?
CBS13 checked with the FAA, Vandenberg AFB, Beale AFB, Travis AFB, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. None of the agencies had answers Wednesday night about what caused the unusual sight, the NWS Bay Area is calling a noctilucent cloud.
Was it a meteor, or something man-made?