WATCH: Streaks of unidentified lights appear in sky

An unidentified streak of lights was witnessed travelling in the sky at night in Sacramento — the capital city of California — which caught the viewers on the spot by surprise and shock, as reported by CBS News.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, while noting the shocking sight said that he can state for sure that the streaks of light — seen over the sky — were burning space debris. 

He maintained that this debris was related to the Japanese communication package — relaying information from the International Space Station (ISS) to a satellite and then to Earth — which became outdated in 2017.

The equipment was then left in the space because it was occupying too much space on the station. It was believed that when it would reach earth, it would be burned completely, the astronomer said.

The burning objects  — from the Japanese communications package — that lit the sky weighed 310 kilogrammes and according to the astronomer McDowell’s estimation, the debris was high up to 40 miles in the sky travelling at the speed of thousand miles per hour.

The re-entry of the debris was confirmed by the US Space Force and it was at that time that people's eyes caught that event in their mobile phones and promptly shared it with millions of viewers all across the globe.