Cool Season auroras have begun! Huzzah!

Something rather mysterious happened in the middle of this morning's aurora. My camera caught two images of a massive fireball apparently exploding into fragments. This photo is a composite of those two images, taken 6 minutes apart. I was sleeping while my camera and its intervalometer did the work, so I didn't see what happened in between those two shots!

What was it??? My best guess: human-made space junk falling into Earth's aurora-charged atmosphere. A little odd that it took 6 minutes to fully disintegrate! Perhaps this object dropped several fragments from space into our atmosphere over a longer period of time.

A lovely sight, however it occurred! But I do despair at how humans are trashing space just as they trashed their home world. 😢

Panasonic Lumix FZ200

Composited two images that were taken 6 minutes apart.
Tweaked exposure, noise reduction.