Parts of a Chinese rocket re-entered Earth’s atmosphere illuminating the sky across California early on Tuesday morning.

At around 1.40am local time (9.40am BST), the space junk shower created a blazing fireball that turned night into day all the way from Sacramento to San Diego, according to the American Meteor Society.

Analysts from the the Aerospace Corporation used tracking data to confirm that the object seen re-entering over Los Angeles was “the orbital module from the November 2022 Chinese Shenzhou-15 launch to their space station”.

Residents were baffled at the mysterious streaks of light and many thought it was the fallout from a successful SpaceX launch several hours earlier from Vandenberg Space Force base in California.

Such space junk showers have become more common in recent years. Last March residents of California were treated to a light show of similar proportions when a piece of debris from the International Space Station burned up in the atmosphere.

An average of one piece of space debris enters the Earth’s atmosphere every day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The fragments, including the ones seen over California on Tuesday, pose no risk to those on the ground.