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What was that in the night sky?
It’s a question being asked by many residents across B.C.'s north and Interior, as well as parts of Alberta and Vancouver Island, after an unusual sighting Tuesday night.
Between about 10:15 and 10:30 p.m. PT, multiple residents, including this CBC reporter, reported seeing a large, white shape slowly move across the horizon before disappearing from view.
Videos have been posted by residents in community Facebook groups from Williams Lake to Prince George to Fort St. John, over a span of hundreds of kilometres. Reports of the sighting have also been received from the Nass Valley, Kamloops, Oliver, Vancouver Island and Sherwood Park, Alta.
Suggestions as to what it might be range from an errant weather balloon to something more out of this world. Another recurring speculation is plumes from the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which could be seen earlier in the evening over California after it took off just before 9 p.m. PT from the Vandenberg Space Force Base.
WATCH | The shape moves across the sky: Strange shape seen in B.C. sky | Duration 2:09 Patricia Seymour was one of dozens of people to observe this shape moving across the horizon on the night of May 5, 2026.
Night sky getting busier
Michael Unger, director of programming at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, said while he didn't see the shape himself, based on video it didn't appear to be a natural occurrence such as a meteor or cloud cover.
"It certainly looks controlled," he said, while adding any guesses he could offer would be pure speculation.
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