Faint white circled object flew in a straight line. Stopped, became extremely bright and flew straight up and disappeared.

My wife and I were sitting outside on our terrace approximately between 7 and 10pm. I was looking up at the night sky enjoying the view of Mars. At around 9:30pm I noticed an object cruising at a very high altitude between Mars and the first star of the big dippers handle. I first thought that I was watching a satellite, but it's speed was too slow. I showed my wife what it was I was looking at and when I pointed it out right before the first star of the big dipper the object stopped. Within the next few seconds the object got very bright and shot straight up and disappeared within a few seconds.