Rocket debris streak through sky leaving Pacific Northwest residents stunned

Oregon residents stunned by rocket debris streaking through sky

Burning debris from a rocket lit up Pacific Northwest skies Thursday night, the National Weather Service in Seattle said.

SEATTLE - Sightings of burning debris falling from the sky in the Pacific Northwest looked like something out of a science fiction movie as people captured the spectacle on social media Thursday night.

Seattle’s National Weather Service later confirmed that the objects were debris from a SpaceX rocket.

"The widely reported bright objects in the sky were debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage that did not successfully have a deorbit burn," the service said in a tweet about the astral occurrence that the Seattle Times reported was seen shortly after 9 p.m.

SpaceX said Wednesday that the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth and landed as planned on its ocean-going barge off the coast of Florida.

There were no reports of damage or other impacts on the ground.

Footage recorded by Lynsey Wallace in Oregon showed the interstellar rubble shooting across the sky.

"What is that?" someone can be heard saying in the video in amazement.

Wallace told Storyful that she and her husband "were both stunned" when they saw the objects streak across the night sky. "A few minutes later we heard muffled booms," she said.

This story was reported from Los Angeles. Storyful and The Associated Press contributed.