Oregon Meteor Shower due to Falcon 9 reentry leaves viewers stunned

A quite unusual scene in the sky over the Pacific Northwest got all the citizens amazed. On Thursday night, that is March 25, many people in the region recorded a rather stunning view in which bright lights seemed to fall from above. These videos taken from the scene had people shocked and perplexed about what it is. Later, Chief Meteorologist Morgan Palmer confirmed that the space debris seen in the videos are actually space junk of the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 reentry.

The second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 reentry fills the sky with burning debris

Thousands of people across Washington and northern Oregon spotted a streak of slow-moving bright lights in the sky. At first glance, it looks like some kind of meteor falling, however, Chief Meteorologist Palmer said that the incident experienced by many citizens in the region is not a meteor instead it is a “space junk” of Falcon 9 reentry. The falling second stage of the rocket was the part of the March 4 launch of the SpaceX Starlink satellite system into the low Earth Orbit.

However, just like any other dropping rocket part, the Falcon 9 burned after reentering the Earth's atmosphere. Palmer also mentioned that rocket seemed to have entered the atmosphere later than expected/ scheduled. The Falcon 9 reentry was scheduled a bit before over the north Pacific Ocean instead of Northwest. The Chief Meteorologist also explained that there might be a chance that there is a small chance of meteors coming to the ground. However, meteors fall quite faster while burning in comparison to rocket debris, as per Palmer. 

The National Weather Service also announced the same by stating: 

”Upon further investigation, we’ve received unofficial information that this is debris burning up in the atmosphere from the Falcon 9 second stage launch that failed to deorbit properly.” 

Astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, Jonathan McDowell said in a Tweet:

"The Falcon 9 second stage from the Mar 4 Starlink launch failed to make a deorbit burn and is now reentering after 22 days in orbit. Its reentry was observed from the Seattle area at about 0400 UTC Mar 26."

Promo Image ~ Genevieve Reaume Twitter