VIDEO: Russian space debris streaks across sky

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Russian space debris was spotted over Southern California and Nevada Tuesday evening, taking social media by storm.

The U.S. Strategic Command confirmed the bright streaking object was in fact Russian space debris.

Officials with the U.S. Strategic Command released a statement, which in part said, "U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Functional Component Command for Space, through the Joint Space Operations Center, removed a Russian SL-4 rocket body from the U.S. satellite catalog as a decayed object after it reentered the atmosphere today over North America (vicinity Arizona)."

Dr. Ed Krupp, an astronomer and the director of the Griffith Observatory, earlier said the object was possibly a meteor or space debris.

Several people took to social media to post video and pictures of the object streaking through the night sky at about 6 p.m.

Posts ranged in location from southern Nevada, to parts of Southern California including Ventura County, Palm Springs, the Antelope Valley and more.

Krupp said several eyewitnesses called the observatory about seeing a "bright streak of light across the sky."