A mysterious object that shed fiery debris across the Maritime sky and prompted worried residents to alert police was caused by the launch of U.S. rocket carrying a spy satellite, officials said.
Officials confirmed the mystery fire ball was actually debris from the launch of an Atlas V rocket carrying a spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.
Emergency phone lines lit up Monday night as residents in New Brunswick alerted police to a strange ball of light blazing across the night sky.
"There was a whole flurry of calls that came in, in excess of a dozen calls. People spotting items they felt were either flares or something falling out of the sky, perhaps a small aircraft," New Brunswick RCMP Sgt. Greg MacAvoy told Â鶹´«Ã½.
Nova Scotia residents with an eye on the sky thought the flaming object could have been a space phenomenon.
"Some people were saying they saw a very bright object in the sky and they don't know if it's a UFO or what it would be," Nova Scotia RCMP Sgt. Mark Gallagher said.
Sky watcher Andy George thought the light was possibly a natural occurrence high above the Earth.
"It was very bright, it was a v-shaped object with a very bright point at the apex of the v and the first thing that came to mind was, this is a comet," George said.
"I ran home and I called my wife and we all ran out the back door and marveled at it."
The volume of calls prompted Nova Scotia RCMP to contact the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax.
"Sky watchers all over Atlantic Canada saw a release of rocket fuel from a rocket that was launched about an hour and a half earlier from Florida," astronomer David Lane told Â鶹´«Ã½.
Lane said the presence of debris did not signal a danger for Maritime residents.
"If there was anything to fall, it would have fallen over the Atlantic Ocean long before it reached the Maritimes," he said.
No debris was found from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) rocket. The Atlas V rocket has had 11 successful launches to date including two missions for NASA, one for the NRO, two for the Air Force, and six for commercial customers.
With a report from CTV's Atlantic Bureau Chief Denelle Balfour
