PORTLAND, Ore. — Did you see the amazing light show Thursday night? A lot of people in the Pacific Northwest saw burning objects fly through the sky.
There hasn't been official confirmation of what the objects were as of yet, but astronomers say they were pieces of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
Since it happened, just before 9:30 Thursday night, KGW has been inundated with videos and photos.
In one video sent by Aidan Hedberg in Keizer, someone can be heard speculating about the possibility of it being “an alien spaceship.”
“Oh my gosh, that better not be a nuke,” said one person in the video.
KGW received images from people all over, from Keizer, to Portland, to Auburn, Washington, who were totally floored by what they saw in the sky.
Ryan O’Leary was left speechless as he watched the light show above his home in the Cedar Mill area around 9:30 p.m.
“All of a sudden we look up because we saw a bright light catch our eyes and we see this surreal event just streaming across the sky,” said O’Leary.
He said at first, he didn’t know what he was looking at and thought it was maybe a meteor shower. He was somewhat worried, but that quickly turned to awe.
“It definitely passed over and cleared us, so we felt pretty safe,” O’Leary said.
PHOTOS: Streaking light in the night sky above Oregon, SW Washington
He said the lights traveled across the sky in the timespan of about 30 seconds before he lost sight of it.
“We then heard a couple loud bangs, and I don’t know if that was some sort of sonic boom,” he said.
Over in Beaverton, Anna Storozhuk had just gotten home from work.
“I get out of my truck. My hands are all full. I just see this flashing light, so I look up and I see this crazy light just flying past me,” said Storozhuk.
She said the lights had flown directly overhead, and she could tell it was definitely not a meteor shower.
“It looked beautiful. It was all this glittering, sparkling, burning lights flying in formation. It was, I don’t know, definitely not like a meter shower,” she said.
Storozhuk said back in November, she saw lights in the sky as well, though nothing like this. During that November event, she had not taken video but had asked friends if they saw anything. They said no. This time, she was determined to document it.
“At first I was like, oh my gosh, what is going on? And then I’m like, I have to grab my phone and record this time. This is so insane,” Storozhuk said.
On Twitter, both the Seattle and Portland hubs of the National Weather Service agreed those flaming objects were likely pieces of a Falcon 9 rocket re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
In a video sent by Manny Reimann from Lebanon, someone can be heard saying, “It’s beautiful but it’s scary. Where’s it gonna land?”
Jim Todd with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) weighed in on that.
“We’re not expecting anything to reach the ground. But that is always gonna be a question when we get a manmade object in the earth’s atmosphere,” Todd said.
People who experienced the event in person are still in amazed by what they saw.
“It was just so pretty to see in real life. At that point I don’t need a definition. It’s just so beautiful. It was so crazy,” said Storozhuk.