What could it be?

A meteor

Today is the peak night of the Quadantrid Meteor Shower, which happens as the Earth crosses the remains of a comet or planetoid observed half century ago. It's logical to think this is may be one of these meteors, but it seems way too slow to be a meteor, which enter the atmosphere at a much faster speed than the UFO recorded in California. Here's a real time NASA recording of the 2013 Quadrantids for comparison:

Meteors often experiment explosions as they enter the atmosphere, but they don't look like the UFO captured in California. The trajectory and the speed of the ball ejected from this object seem completely off. It's unlikely but the explanation for this anomaly could be the camera angle, but it still seems really weird.

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A satellite or spacecraft on re-entry

Judging by its speed, this can also be an unknown satellite or a spacecraft entering the atmosphere. There have been no official reports at this time and there may never be one because it could be a military satellite or some secret experimental spacecraft. The ball may be a piece of the object ejected in a violent explosion. However, if you look at this video of the Columbia accident, that's not how pieces from explosions act.

Perhaps, however, this unidentified object was supposed to eject something on re-entry, much like spy satellites used to eject film canisters until the 1980s. If it's something experimental, we may never learn about what the hell it can be.

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An experimental anti-intercontinental ballistic missile defense system or some other weapons test

This is may be a possibility, as the US announced last month that they were going to start testing anti-ICBM system. It's definitely not an ICBM, however, as the warheads wouldn't be ejected in that way, as shown in this video of a recent Russian test.

An alien spaceship crashing with an alien escaping in a pod

I mean, why not, right?

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A very good CGI prank

This is the most obvious explanation—it could all be a prank carefully crafted in a computer.

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Any other theories?


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