An unusually slow-moving group of fireballs was spotted from the U.S. Southwest into Canada earlier this week.

But the lights in the sky weren’t coming from a meteor — it was space junk re-entering and breaking up over Earth.

The American Meteor Society fielded nearly 200 reports from across the region Monday night. While some people assumed it was a meteor, Diane Haskins from Noxon, Montana, hit the nail on the head.

“,” she told the AMS. “It appeared that something was breaking apart since all the streaks of light traveled in the same direction. Some of the lights dimmed out as they streaked across the sky.”

U.S. Strategic Command confirmed with The Associated Press that the lights were a Chinese rocket booster falling apart during re-entry.

The rocket that launched a satellite on Dec. 27 wasn't abnormally large, said Maj. Martin O'Donnell. Angle of re-entry and weather conditions can make space objects look brighter from earth.

Utah-based NASA ambassador Patrick Wiggins said most such events go unnoticed.

"There are literally thousands of satellites orbiting the earth and these things fall out of the sky all of the time," he said. "This one just happened to be passing over some fairly large metropolitan areas, and it did it at night."

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