California witnesses mysterious lights in the sky, turns out to be ISS space debris.
TL;DR Summary
The mystery lights seen over California were caused by space junk burning up in the atmosphere, according to astronomer Jonathan McDowell. The debris was from a 689-pound Japanese communications device launched in 2009 that was detached from the International Space Station in 2017. While such events are rare in any one place, they are common on a global scale due to the large amount of orbital debris around the world. McDowell urged authorities to take more safety precautions to avoid sending large pieces of debris into orbit.
Topics:science#astronomy#california#debris#international-space-station#science-and-technology#space-junk
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