Fireball breaks up in skies over Northern California. Here’s what it was
A fiery streak of space debris lit up the Northern California sky Thursday night, drawing hundreds of reports from residents across the Sacramento area, the Bay Area and beyond.
The American Meteor Society received more than 200 eyewitness reports of the glowing object, which was visible around 7:50 p.m. In the capital region, residents in Citrus Heights, Roseville and Vacaville captured videos showing a white-and-orange fireball breaking apart as it moved from west to east across the sky. Sightings were reported as far south as the Los Angeles area.
Amateur astronomers identified the object as Starlink-1586, a satellite launched in 2020 from Florida. The satellite re-entered Earth’s atmosphere around 7:48 p.m. Pacific time, traveling at an estimated 17,500 mph, according to satellite tracking by the Aerospace Corp. Officials from the U.S. Space Force confirmed the re-entry of the satellite launched by Elon Musk’s other company, SpaceX.
Starlink is a constellation of internet satellites designed to provide global high-speed broadband coverage, particularly in rural or underserved areas. The system operates in low Earth orbit, where thousands of small satellites form a network to transmit internet signals to users on the ground.
The re-entry happened about two hours before the launch of another satellite, Starlink-1711 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, at Vandenburg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.
Aerospace Corp., which monitors orbital re-entries, noted that human-made space debris can often be mistaken for meteors but tends to move more slowly and break into multiple parts.
“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,” the group said on its website about object re-entries. “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.”
In videos shared to the meteor society and to local TV outlets, the satellite’s breakup appeared dramatic but serene, moving slowly across the sky and trailing glowing fragments for several seconds.
As of Friday morning, no reports of damage or debris on the ground had been confirmed.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 10:14 AM with the headline "Fireball breaks up in skies over Northern California. Here’s what it was."
