Celestial Firework: Chinese Satellite’s Dramatic Return Ignites the Sky

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) – On Saturday evening, shortly after 10 p.m., numerous individuals as far north as Tennessee witnessed what seemed to be a fireball gliding slowly through the night sky.

The Ursid meteor shower was taking place last night, yet the bright streaks in the sky were too luminous and moved too leisurely to be a meteor. This prompted many to inquire… what was visible in the sky last night?

What we probably observed was orbital debris, commonly referred to as space junk.

Per NASA, “There are millions of fragments of space junk orbiting in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). Most of this orbital debris comprises human-made items, such as pieces of spacecraft, small paint flecks from a spacecraft, rocket components, nonfunctional satellites, or remnants from explosions involving objects in orbit speeding through space.”

The space junk that entered Earth’s atmosphere was a Chinese satellite named the “Gaojing/Superview-1 02,” which incinerated upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Superview satellite was launched in December 2016 and was retired nearly two years prior.

With new satellites being deployed daily, including the latest Starlink satellites, observing such objects igniting in the sky may become increasingly common in the future.

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