HOUSTON — The bright red light seen over the Houston sky Wednesday night has a lot of people talking, and asking what it was.
That's why KHOU 11 News went searching for answers.
It’s the million-dollar question Houstonians were wanting to know and our social media pages were flooded with comments.
The light was seen in parts of east Houston, including Friendswood, League City and other surrounding areas, at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Here’s what KHOU 11 Meteorologist Tim Pandajis said it could have been: “We did get confirmation that there was ongoing flaring at one of the oil refineries. That bright light from the flare was being reflected like a mirror by ice crystals in the middle to upper levels of the atmosphere."
Pandajis said the atmosphere has to be just right for such a rare occurrence to happen.
"The atmosphere conditions with flaring at the same time doesn't happen very often," he said.
The LyondellBasell refinery in La Porte sent a release Wednesday saying flaring was taking place.
“I can tell you it's not a comet, it's not a shooting star, it's not an aurora,” Vice President of Astronomy at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences Carolyn Sumners said.
Sumners agrees that all signs point to flaring.
"The refinery doesn't move, that’s why it (the light) doesn’t move over time. That’s a good solution. Something that’s actively burning is going to burn out. When a refinery is flaring, they continue to flare," she said.
Pandajis said nothing is for certain.
"We don't know everything that happens in the atmosphere. We’re still learning as we go forward,” he said.
Sumners said it's enough to conclude that the book can be closed on the mystery.
"I think that this mystery has a good enough solution that we can go on to the next mystery," she said.