Don't freak out—that fireball above LA last night was just a rocket

Angelenos, we tend to be pretty skittish when it comes to (often not-so) mysterious sights and sounds in the atmosphere. What was that sound and/or flash of light last night? The answer is almost always a blown transformer, a helicopter or, on rare occasions, lightning—except for last night.

A bright streak of light was spotted in the skies here in LA and above much of the Western U.S. on Wednesday night. While initial reactions on Twitter had many people pegging the mysterious, multiple streaks of light as a meteor, it turns out it was actually a second stage rocket burning up upon reentry. The U.S. Strategic Command says the lights line up with a Chinese rocket they spotted re-entering the atmosphere above Nevada around 9:36pm, according to the Associated Press. Apparently it's a common sight for the command center to spot.

Dude did we just see a plane fall out of the Sky?? https://t.co/DbPreTiFkA

— pennybirdrabbit (@whoispenny) July 28, 2016

But if you insist on keeping your conspiracy hat on, Nellis Air Force Base officials initially said it was a meteor breaking up. Our own Griffith Observatory first thought it may have been a meteor from the about-to-peak Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower. And then there's this Angeleno who just happened to spot the streak while watching Stranger Things. Coincidence? ... Of course.

If you'd rather sprinkle a bit of pixie dust on the story, let's call it a shooting star, as some of the crowd at Disneyland did—with thousands of people looking to the skies during the nightly fireworks show, there were plenty of reports of the streak coming out of the Happiest Place on Earth.