Las Vegas was treated to a very different type of light show on Wednesday after a mysterious fireball streaked across the night sky.
The huge ball of light was seen across three US states prompting members of the public to claim that it was either a “UFO” or a plane breaking apart after an incident
The streaks of light were seen by people all over Utah, Nevada and California.
According to the LA Times though this was not a “UFO” or indeed a plane breaking apart, it was in fact a Chinese rocket.
The rocket had been launched last month and was finally beginning to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
Upon entering the atmosphere the debris immediately started to burn up - travelling over the night sky at around 18,000mph just 50 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Speaking to the LA Times, astronomer Jonathan McDowell explained that occurrences like this were more common than many people might expect.
‘Something this big enters in an uncontrolled way probably once a month.
‘Mostly they fall into the ocean ― the Earth is a big place. The chance that you get one at night, over the U.S. at time when people look at the sky ― it is relatively low.’ explained McDowell.
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