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That Fireball You Saw Last Night? Mystery Solved

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.

A glowing fireball streaked across the sky over Los Angeles last night, so Angelenos naturally took to Twitter with questions—and jokes. Is it a true meteor, or just space trash? Did Kobe shoot a freethrow from heaven?

Frenzied sky-watchers across LA, and even as far south as San Diego, propelled #meteor to trending on Twitter. Videos show the meteor breaking up into several blazing pieces across the sky.

Even the experts didn't know initially if the fireball was made of rock, or if it was just one of the 500,000 pieces of space trash orbiting the Earth.

NASA finally figured it out though. Here's the answer.

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