Strange Lights
Rocket jellyfish, satellite trains, fireballs and more: what you're probably seeing.
Strange lights in the sky? What you're probably seeing
A glowing "jellyfish" over the Cape
A rocket launched about 30 minutes to 2 hours before sunrise or after sunset. You're in the dark, but the exhaust plume 50+ miles up is still in sunlight, so it spreads into a glowing, ghostly cloud. It's the Space Coast's most-reported "UFO."
No twilight launch with a firm time is on our schedule in the next 7 days. See the launch schedule.
A line of moving "stars"
A Starlink satellite train: SpaceX satellites shortly after launch, still bunched in a row and catching sunlight. They're best a few days after a Starlink launch, around dusk or dawn, and fade as they climb to higher orbits.
Check Find Starlink for visible passes.
One steady, bright light crossing fast
Probably the International Space Station. It has no blinking lights, never changes direction and crosses in 2 to 6 minutes. It's often brighter than any star.
A brilliant streak, maybe green or orange
A fireball: a meteor brighter than Venus, from a pebble- to rock-sized bit of space debris burning up 50 to 75 miles up. They last a few seconds. The Taurids (late October into November) are known for them.
Saw one? Report it to the American Meteor Society, or browse the AMS fireball log and fireball FAQ. AMS doesn't offer a public feed we can reuse, so we link to its listings instead of copying reports.
A slow, crumbling fireball with many pieces
Likely a satellite or rocket-stage reentry. These move slower than meteors, break into a trail of glowing fragments and can last a minute or more.
Predictions: Aerospace Corp reentry list.
Red flashes above a distant thunderstorm
Possibly sprites, red bursts of light 30 to 55 miles up above strong storms, lasting a fraction of a second. Florida's summer storms offshore or over the Gulf are a good setup. Look just above a far-off storm on a dark night, and cameras catch them better than eyes do.
← Tonight's sky over Brevard · Sources: how we use them