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It’s a Rocket, It’s a Meteor, It’s . . .

Scientists say the streaking light and strange cloud that appeared in the sky over the Bay Area earlier this week was a meteor.

That odd wiggly streak of a cloud that remained after the fireball disappeared? A “noctilucent cloud.”

Daniel Swain on Twitter Appears that tonight’s mystery cloud excitement in Northern California was an unusually bright/large #meteor, which left a persistent “glowing” trail known as a noctilucent cloud. Visible meteors are not that rare, but noctilucent trails are quite unusual! https://t.co/YAvQ5aN1RR

There may, of course, be a simpler explanation.

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