Turns out the series of bright lights people saw streaking across the night sky on Wednesday came from a Chinese rocket that had reentered the atmosphere over California.
U.S. Strategic Command "removed a Chinese CZ-7 rocket body from the U.S. satellite catalog as a decayed object after it reentered the atmosphere July 28, 2016, over North America," spokesperson Maj. Matthew Miller told BuzzFeed News.
The removal took place around 11:36 CT and was in the vicinity of California, though people as far away as Colorado saw the bright lights it left in its path.
The rocket belongs to the Chinese National Space Administration, Miller said.