The State - News from Jan. 4, 1985

A bright white flash was seen in the skies over Northern California and Nevada just before dawn, but no one knows what caused it. The flash could have been caused by a meteor, but astronomical sources could not confirm it. The North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., which keeps track of man-made objects in space that might burn out and cause such a flash, said the light was not caused by anything it was tracking. A spokesman for Vandenberg Air Force Base, where rocket launches are sometimes visible in Northern California, said nothing had been launched. National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials at Mountain View, Calif., also had no explanation.