Mysterious light in sky baffles residents from, Northern California to Arizona,

Witnesses from San Francisco to as far south as Chandler, Arizona reported seeing a mysterious blue light streaking across the night sky Saturday. Hundreds of residents reported seeing the moving light in the Bay Area, Anaheim, Santa Monica and even in San Diego, according to KTVU. Arizona residents also reported seeing the bright streak in the sky, according to Fox 10 Phoenix.

Reports of what the actual light was have differed. “The light seen in the OC sky was confirmed through JWA tower to be a Naval test fire off the coast,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter. JWA tower refers to John Wayne Airport which is in Orange.
The Navy confirmed in a statement that it did launch a rocket off the coast of Southern California on Saturday night. “Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted scheduled Trident II (D5) missile test flight at sea from USS Kentucky, an Ohio Class SSBN, in the Pacific Test Range off the coast of Southern California,” Navy spokesman Cdr. Ryan Perry said in a statement. “The tests were part of a scheduled, on-going system evaluation test.” Naval launches are usually conducted to test the capabilities of its systems, Perry said. The missile wasn’t armed and usually missile testing isn’t announced. A video from Chandler, Arizona shows the object lighting up the sky and then disappearing. At the same time of the apparent rocket test, the annual Taurid meteor shower could have also been seen in the night sky. This year’s Taurids are expected to be more active than usual, according to NASA, making bright “fireballs” more numerous in the night sky. The shower’s peak is expected to run Nov. 5 through Nov. 12. The shower, or Taurid “swarm,” occurs when Earth passes through a broad stream of debris left by Comet Encke. “Taurid meteors can be seen any time the constellation Taurus is above the horizon during the months of September, October, and November,” explained Bill Cooke, lead for the NASA Meteoroid Environments Office, in a recent blog post. “The best time to look for Taurids is after midnight, when Taurus is high in the sky, and when the sky is dark and clear, with no moonlight to mask the fainter meteors.”