Griffith Observatory Astronomer Says Streak Of Green-Blue Light Over SoCal 'Probably' A Meteorite
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — What was that?
People from all over Southern California reported seeing a greenish-blue light streaking across the sky early Thursday morning.
Deputies at the Lost Hills Sheriff's station received a few calls about a light in the sky shortly before 7 a.m., but no object was spotted, authorities said.
A spokesman for Vandenburg Air Force Base said there were no scheduled launches this morning.
Reports on social media from the San Fernando and Crescenta valleys to as far south as Hemet and San Diego County appeared to indicate the light was spotted sometime around 6:40 a.m.
Dr. Ed Krupp of the Griffith Observatory told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO while it wasn't immediately known what the object was, Krupp believes it was likely a natural object.
"Anything that comes through the atmosphere that we don't know, it's safe to call it junk," said Krupp. "It's probably natural junk, that is, a meteorite, a particle of stone or rocky stuff in outer space that happens to hit the earth's atmosphere."
According to Krupp, the object may also have been "something that we put up" in space that has come back down, but there's been no confirmation or evidence for that suggestion.
One caller told KNX 1070 he spotted the object while driving in Torrance off the 110 Freeway.
"It came right over the freeway and it was about 200 feet off the freeway," the caller said.
