How the Sky match works
For every sighting with a place, a date and (ideally) a time, the site looks at what was really in the sky: rocket launches within about 1,500 km in the hours before, Starlink satellite trains passing over (worked out from their orbits for recent sightings), fireballs recorded by NASA, the International Space Station, bright planets — including where the witness pointed — and planes on recorded flight paths. Each sighting gets a plain verdict: likely, possible, or no ordinary match, with the reasons.
No match doesn’t make a sighting unexplained — drones, balloons, lanterns and many planes aren’t in any record — and a match isn’t a final answer. Check any sighting’s Sky conditions for the full picture, or use What’s that light? for tonight’s sky.