This Mysterious Celestial Event Is No Usual Meteorite

NAPA VALLEY, CA — A mysterious fireball shot across the night sky Thursday night, demanding attention from everyone in its path.

More than 200 reports about the celestial spectacle seen over the skies above California and Nevada flooded into the American Meteor Society.

The first reports started coming in around 7:45

They filmed the fiery object moving eastward, the first reports to the society's website coming in around 7:50 p.m. Thursday evening.

The mysterious object wasn’t a naturally occurring meteorite, but a Starlink satellite falling back to Earth, the American Meteor Society reported.

Multiple Starlink satellites were predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday evening, according to the Aerospace Corporation database, which tracks satellites returning to Earth, the San Francisco Gate reported.

Fireballs are meteors that appear brighter than normal and they happen a lot.

The overall risk of being hit and injured by a piece of reentering debris is estimated to be less than one in one trillion, according to the Aerospace Corporation.

And satellites are not falling to earth more often despite the dramatic increase, according to the International Meteor Organization.

Fireballs actually occur every day all over the Earth.

But that does not make them any less special. To humans below they are a rare spectacle that is witnessed very few times per lifetime because many fall over open oceans and deserts.

"This was very dramatic. Similar to the photos of the recent meteor stile a few years ago on Russia," a Walnut Creek watcher wrote.

A Napa onlooker wrote that, "Something solid was breaking up in the atmosphere." And a Concord resident wrote, "Multiple balls of fire falling off of it."

One of the earliest reports at 9:28 p.m from Ukiah reported that the fireball "began to look more bright as in the color of white. ( Not like Starlink!)"

A post from Healdsburg summed up the excitement shared by on with the American Meteor Society and on social media. "This was SO cool! Absolutely on fire, definitely not a mistake my 3 friends and I saw it from the balcony and ran outside of the restaurant to chase it down the street. The coolest thing ever."

More about meteorites:

Just a Rock – Report of Novato Meteorite a Mistake

Meteorite That Hit GA House Is 'Older Than Earth'

Fireball Blazes Over Northeast Sky, Wows Connecticut Stargazers