WATCH: Streaks of unidentified lights appear in sky

An unknown line of lights was seen traveling across the sky at night in Sacramento, the capital of California, leaving onlookers in shock and awe. CBS News.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, noted the startling sight and said he could say with certainty that the streaks of light seen in the sky were burning space debris.

He maintained that the debris was related to a Japanese communications package – relaying information from the International Space Station (ISS) to a satellite and then back to Earth – which became obsolete in 2017.

The equipment was then released into space as it was taking up too much space on the station. Astronomers said it was believed to burn up completely when it reached Earth.

The burning object – from a Japanese communications package – that lit up the sky weighed 310 kilograms and, according to astronomer McDowell’s estimate, the debris was 40 miles into the sky traveling at 1,000 miles per hour. had lived.

The re-entry of the debris was confirmed by the US Space Force and it was then that eyewitnesses captured the event on their mobile phones and instantly shared it with millions of viewers around the world.