Mysterious light in night sky over NC wasn’t a comet, experts say. What was it?
Twenty-eight people in the Carolinas and six other states reported seeing a mysterious fireball or light in the night sky early Thursday, according to the American Meteorological Society.
A North Carolina resident who identified himself only as Thomas A. posted a photo of blue trails of light from up right in the sky to down left.
“It lasted a few minutes,” the man reported, without saying where in the state he took the photo. “I only noticed it as it approached the horizon, but the trail lasted a long time.”
People in Florida, Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania also said they saw the fireball.
Kelsey K. in Lawndale, Cleveland County, saw the fireball from a car.
“It was huge and a little under the moon when I saw it,” Kelsey K. said. “I was driving and didn’t see the end of its path.”
People saw a rocket launch and not a fireball, according to the AMS.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to Space X.
This story was originally published September 20, 2025 at 6:24 PM.