Tons of spectators in California, as well as in some neighboring states such as Arizona, were able to witness an extremely bright light in the skies Saturday night at approximately 9 P.M. Eastern time (6 P.M. local time). As you might be able to imagine, the bright lights caused a lot of confusion, and many witnesses called up officials to report UFO sightings as the cause.
With smartphones being to popular in today’s world, you can bet that many pictures and videos of the phenomenon made it to the Web in almost no time at all by way of social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. One of the photographs, shown below, illustrates the eerie look of the light from the perspective of one of the witnesses of the lights in the sky:
Here’s a video of the odd lights in the sky posted to YouTube by YouTube user Anthony Ramirez that also made headlines this weekend:
Although “UFO” was the first thing that came to mind for many spectators, others assumed it might be a part of the Taurid Meteor Shower that happens on an annual basis; after all, it was expected to be highly active this year.
On the other hand, it was neither the latter nor the former. The United States Navy was actually just performing a scheduled test of its submarine missile launch system to ensure the on-going reliability of its defense systems. The missile was reportedly not armed.
"Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted scheduled Trident II (D5) missile test flight at sea from USS Kentucky, an Ohio Class SSBN, in the Pacific Test Range off the coast of Southern California," Ryan Perry, a Naval commander and spokesperson, said in a statement. "The tests were part of a scheduled, on-going system evaluation test."
Nonetheless, the effects in the night sky were still pretty jaw-dropping. It can be an adrenaline-pumping experience to see something you can’t really explain in the night skies, especially when it’s right outside of your window.
Source: NBC News