"It trailed with a huge bell shaped cloud, then as it continued across the sky it took different paths," he added.

"My friend Ian and I just saw this in the sky above east LA," she wrote on Instagram. "Can anyone explain it? . ... Was I abducted?"

The good news: Nobody was actually abducted by aliens. The light came from an unarmed Trident II missile test-fired by the U.S. Navy off the southern California coast, the Union-Tribune reports.

"The tests were part of a scheduled, ongoing system evaluation test," Navy Cmdr. Ryan Perry told NBC News.

>> Click here or scroll down to see more reactions from social media

About the Author

Featured

Jo'wan Bellamy taught in the GNETS program for 17 years and recently transferred to Atlanta’s new behavioral program at Crawford Long Middle School. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com