Mainers Report Seeing Odd Lights In The Sky Across The Pine Tree State Tuesday Night

Two major questions seemed to captivate social media feeds Tuesday night: who would win the local elections, and what was in the night sky over Maine?!

Everyone and their brother whipped out their phones to take pictures of the strange glowing sphere that appeared to hang on the horizon.

Read More: Discover The Legendary Cryptids Of Maine's Dark Woods

Kate Carey was out walking her neighbor's dog, Oscar, when she looked up and saw what she first thought was a plane covered by clouds.

"I just took this video off our deck looking west (toward Bangor from Holden). At first, I thought it was a plane with a weird reflection off clouds going into the airport. "

"It didn't stay on the typical path for the airport, though. Ryan and I also checked the radar, and there weren’t any planes in this direction just now."

Carey wasn't alone. Loads of people saw the unexplained light. And loads of people posted their pictures and their thoughts or questions about what it was. So many, in fact, that some even reached out to local law enforcement to report it.

The Clinton, Maine Police Department issued a humorous statement and explanation on their Facebook Page.

"No need to panic, Clinton. We have confirmed that the strange glowing spiral in the sky tonight was not
A. aliens
B. a wormhole
C. your neighbor’s blueberry kush vape cloud drifting into orbit

For anyone who immediately jumped to “Must be Comet 3I ATLAS alien related”:
Nope. Wrong celestial visitor. This one was actually planned."

They went on to explain that, according to a local news station, what folks were seeing in the sky had to do with a recent rocket launch. And they were right.

The space experts at the Versant Astronomy Center and Jordan Planetarium at the University of Maine in Orono say that what was spotted in the night sky on Tuesday was actually just rocket exhaust.

"This was an Ariane 6 rocket launch from the European Space Agency.  The exhaust can sometimes make these patterns. It is somewhat common, as it normally is from the rocket exhaust.  The particles freeze in the upper atmosphere and reflect sunlight - it almost looked a bit like a spiral galaxy!  But just rocket exhaust."

According to Space.com, the rocket is equipped with some pretty cool tech!

"The Sentinel-1 series of satellites captures detailed radar imagery of Earth," which officials say can provide record information during all types of weather, around the clock.

While this explanation may not be as salacious as some of the conspiracy theories circulating around the web last night, it's no less cool than what we saw was, in fact, something meant for space, that does cool things in space.