Video: Mysterious Night Lights Spark Widespread Reports

[flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhYJH9dhq1g /] By Wendy Osher

*UPDATE: 6:50 a.m. 8/31/15:  According to information released by the DoD’s Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB in CA, the object was likely the Cosmos 1315 payload launched in 1981. Gene Stansbery, Program Manager for NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office confirmed the report with Maui Now this morning.

Maui Now received multiple reports late Sunday evening of mysterious lights seen over the night skies.

The reports starting coming in at around 11:02 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015, with most saying the lights traveled for about 20 to 30 seconds from south to north before disappearing.

Witnesses say the lights broke into several pieces before disappearing from view in the Honolua and Kahakuloa direction.

[flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnNXfxgBgY /] Here on Maui, sightings were reported in Pukalani, Waiehu, Paukukalo and Puʻunēnē.

We also received reports from ʻEwa Beach on Oʻahu and Keaʻau on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

Witnesses speculate that the lights appeared to be a meteor falling apart.  Others describe it as, “a large debris field of sorts (that) streaked from south to north at a very slow speed as compared to a shooting star.”

Photo credit: Jeordan Dela Cruz.

Photo credit: Malia Golden Akinaka.