The flaming debris was part of the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched 22 of the company's Starlink internet satellites to orbit from California on Feb. 1, experts say. The Falcon 9 upper stage is expendable (unlike the rocket's first-stage booster) but is designed to be brought down in a controlled fashion shortly after launch.

The pyrotechnics were in fact caused by a Space X Falcon 9 rocket re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. There are reports of sightings in Denmark, Sweden and England. Pieces of the rocket then crashed into Poland and,