Were there random shooting stars over Seattle and Portland?

Numerous residents in the Seattle and Portland areas noticed a very strange phenomenon in the night sky on Thursday. Many recorded the event, which looked like a sudden, concentrated stream of shooting stars. Some wondered if it might have been an unexpected meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere and burning up.  

The true culprit, however, is expected to be a piece of SpaceX equipment. While the National Weather Service’s bureaus in both Portland and Seattle were awaiting confirmation on Friday, they both suspected that the phenomenon was caused by a Falcon 9 rocket.  

The rocket had launched in early March to deliver a payload of about 60 satellites and then come back to Earth. However, the craft failed to make a deorbit burn, in which it slows its speed enough so that it can begin its return to Earth. Since that maneuver failed, it re-entered the atmosphere after 22 days in orbit at a speed that caused it to burn up and create the mysterious lightshow seen from the ground.