Reports from US media outlets indicate that the mysterious flash of light observed in the western United States in April 2023, initially speculated as a sign of extraterrestrial visitation, has been identified as a meteor. While Earth did experience an encounter with an otherworldly object, it turned out to be a space rock rather than a living entity.
Nevertheless, the sightings of aliens accompanying the flash of light remain unexplained.
On April 30, a Las Vegas police officer captured the streak of light on their body camera. Shortly after, an individual contacted emergency services, claiming that a UFO had landed in their backyard, as reported by local CBS affiliate 8 News Now.
The caller described a large non-human creature in their yard, stating, "It has big eyes and it's looking at us." Interestingly, other witnesses at the scene confirmed seeing the same phenomenon, as evidenced by police footage shared online.
According to the American Meteor Society, the observed flash of light was caused by a fireball from a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere. This event was recorded in the organization's fireball logs.
However, NASA had no recorded mention of this incident. NASA's planetary defense official, Lindley Johnson, explained to Vice Media's Motherboard outlet that NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) database only includes reports of objects measuring one meter or more in size. These larger objects are categorized as asteroids rather than meteors.
The question remains: if the flash of light was merely a meteor that did not land in someone's yard, what did land?