(CNET) – Last week, bright, flaming objects were spotted in the sky over the island of Chiloe in southern Chile before reportedly crashing to the ground and starting a series of small fires. Resident Bernardita Ojeda showed local Channel 2 news where something fell from the sky and burned some bushes on her property: Now, after a preliminary investigation, officials from Chile’s National Service of Geology and Mining say they’ve ruled out a disintegrating meteorite as the cause after failing to find any evidence of space rock at seven points where fires were started.

So, what are we dealing with here? Just some super-heated space junk re-entering the atmosphere or is someone testing their space lasers on Chilean scrub? Technically, we’re talking about unidentified flying objects. Yes, UFOs. Although nothing big or well-piloted enough to reopen The X-Files for, it would seem. After the story spread through social media last week, leading Chilean astronomer and astrophysicist Jose Maza told national broadcaster TVN the object was likely either a meteorite or space debris. READ MORE