A "weird object" over New Jersey that many suspected to be a UFO was just a ULA rocket laucnh.

By Cecilia Levine From Daily Voice

A mysterious glowing object spotted over New Jersey skies Tuesday night, Aug. 12, had locals buzzing — but it wasn’t a UFO.

And it wasn't a shooting star either (despite coinciding with the height of the Perseids meteor shower).

It was probably a rocket launch.

A Reddit post titled “Weird object in sky outside of AC” showed the bright, halo-like glow moving downward in the night sky. “Does anybody know what this could be? It started moving downwards. Possible UFO?!” the user wrote.

But one space-savvy commenter offered a grounded explanation: the sight was likely connected to a rocket launch.

Rocket nerd here. This was most likely the Ariane 6 Launch that had happened at around 8:30 pm. The orbit lines up perfectly with where this is(on its second orbit around Earth). This is its third stage detanking (detanking normally looks like this)

Space.com had a different take: United Launch Alliance (ULA) launched its Vulcan Centaur rocket — the most powerful Vulcan Centaur rocket yet — from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 8:56 p.m. EDT. 

The rocket carried an experimental navigation satellite for the U.S. military. The timing and orbit lined up with the NJ sighting, making it likely residents were seeing the rocket’s third stage detanking as it passed overhead.