“Saw it just as I pulled into Playas. The way the tail sparkled I thought it was really big fireworks. Very cool,” user SeahawkTJ wrote on Reddit.
US Strategic Command has stated that they do not believe it was a man-made object, as it did not appear to be in their database of satellites.
“Saw it from the roof of my condo building downtown,” another Reddit user with the handle RidiculousSN wrote of the fireball. “Brightest and most consistent trail I've ever seen. You expect some sort of an explosion part way through, but this one seemed like a sideways ‘comet tail’ firework.”
Scientists at Los Angeles’ Griffith Observatory have not been able to confirm the nature of the fireball, but stated that it was likely a piece of “space junk” that burned up as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, according to the the San Diego Union Tribune.
