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A dazzling light show that could be seen from North County to the South Coast had some people thinking UFOs, but astronomy buffs say a more likely explanation is a meteor crashing into Earth's atmosphere.
The June 5 incident didn't pack the wallop of the 2-pound meteorite that crashed into a house over the weekend in Auckland, New Zealand, but it's similar to the many celestial events that take place around the world regularly, astronomy buffs say.
"Meteors are not all that rare," said Chuck McPartlin, vice president of the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit astronomy club. "It's rare for pieces to survive and hit the ground and be found."
That would be a meteorite -- and so far none have been reported in this county.
Such a find would be a first, said Montecito meteorite collector Dale Lowdermilk.
"The closest meteorite to Santa Barbara County happened in 1956 on a beach in Ventura. It's called Ventura Iron and it's on display at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles."
Only 29 meteorites have been found in California, he added, and just five of those are what collectors would call "witnessed falls," meaning someone actually saw it land.
Mr. Lowdermilk, a retired air traffic controller, has an extensive collection of meteorites, including one weighing about 25 pounds which he takes to local schools to help get kids turned on to space. "These are the rarest pieces of geology that many of them will see," he said.
Witnesses to the June 5 incident may never get to know what a real meteorite feels like, but they do have stories to tell.
A group out grunion hunting near Stearns Wharf reported seeing a big flash followed by several pulses of light that seemed to move across the sky.
Dave Odell was traveling north on Highway 101 near San Ysidro Road when he saw "that flash."
"It was unlike anything I have ever witnessed ... like a lightning strike but multiply it by about 1,000," said Mr. Odell, vice president of the Tynan Group, a developer on the Hotel Carrillo in downtown Santa Barbara. "It seemed omnipresent in the sky, as if it were not from one location but filling the entire sky."
Two other people described the light as bluish in color.
Connor Fatch, 14, of Santa Barbara noticed the light while talking on the phone to a friend.
"The light I saw lasted about two seconds ... sort of the color that a TV casts off in a dark room. In fact, at first I thought that someone had turned our TV on," he said. "Then on the phone I said 'Whoa.' And my friend was like 'What?' and I said that there was a huge bright light that just happened outside of my window, and she said that she saw a light too."
The girl said it looked more like a flashlight.
But Tim Singer, 15, said he was on a friend's roof when "the ground lit up with an intense blue light, almost as if there was a streetlight overhead that was suddenly turning on, but it was flickering."
"We looked up and there was an absolutely huge meteor streaking across the sky. There was a thick trail behind it, and its front edge was glowing a bright orange," he said. "About a second after we looked up, it broke into many smaller pieces that rapidly dimmed."
Some experts say the event has the makings of a fireball.
"That's a meteor that produces a huge ball of light. And what's ironic is that most fireballs are not much larger than walnuts," said Mr. Lowdermilk. "Many are the size of a grain of sand. They are ionizing the air around them making it glow like a neon tube."
Krissie Cook, astronomy programs coordinator for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, said there could be another explanation: sunlight reflecting off Iridium satellites.
Iridium flares, as they are called, are quite common. Four could be visible tonight alone, weather permitting. The first is set for about 9:57 p.m. in the northeast, about 45 degrees above the horizon. Another one, predicted for 10:26 p.m. in the west about 14 degrees above the horizon, will be caused by sunlight hitting antenna plates on the Iridium 4 satellite, which was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 5, 1997.
Unlike meteors, Iridium flares travel at a regular pace across the sky, steadily going from dim to bright. A meteor generally has a bright flash at the beginning and the light trails off.
While Ms. Cook didn't see anything on June 5, she said meteor activity is common here. "Sometimes you get lucky and see one."