Mystery revealed: What was the fiery activity witnessed in California sky?

(FOX40.COM) — Several California residents reported seeing a fiery meteor-like object shooting through the sky on Thursday night. But was it?
• Video Above: Mysterious light streaks across California sky

Around 7:45 p.m., people from all over the state said they witnesses a meteor, or something similar to it, traveling through the sky. Reports came in to the FOX40 newsroom from Rocklin, Shingle Springs, Salida, and the Sacramento area. Some of the witnesses also captured video footage.

Many people speculated that it could be a meteor. Some thought it was a satellite, or even the rapture. However, experts said it was something else.

“This was NOT a meteor, or the rapture, but simply space object reentry,” said FOX40 chief meteorologist Adam Epstein. “The object is a Starlink payload, NORAD ID 47607. It was launched February 4^th, 2021, from Cape Canaveral as part of Starlink Launch 18.”

A space object reentry is the process of a human-made spacecraft or other object, like debris, returning from orbit and entering Earth’s atmosphere, according to aeorospace.org. Once it hits Earth, it’s slowed by atmospheric drag and subject to extreme heat from friction. The process of space object reentry can be controlled, as in a planned landing, or uncontrolled, where the object decays from orbit and burns up or breaks apart in the atmosphere.

Epstein offered some tips on how to tell the difference between meteors and human-made reentries, sourced from aerospace.

“The general rule-of-thumb is that natural meteor reentries happen quickly and typically last less than a few seconds while human-made reentries happen slowly, and typically can last 20 – 90 seconds or more,” Epstein said.

He offered additional tips to spot the difference between meteors and human-made reentries:

• If an object moves slowly and steadily across the sky at a speed similar to how a fast aircraft would move, and it is trailing a long glowing streak behind it, it is probably a reentry.

• If there appear to be a tight cluster of bright points all moving in the same direction at similar speeds, and all leaving streaks behind them, then it is very probably a reentry breakup.

• If the object is moving extremely fast, and the event is gone in a flash or a few seconds, then it is very probably a meteor.