A cluster of fireballs streaked across the Southern sky Saturday night, leaving witnesses dazzled and alarmed — especially in light of reports of mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey and across the northeast.
This time, though, the truth is out there.
Experts say the spectacular light show was the result of a derelict Chinese satellite colliding with Earth’s atmosphere.
The decommissioned satellite entered the atmosphere above New Orleans around 10 p.m. and burned over Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri, astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics posted on X.
Cell phone videos shared by gobsmacked earthlings show what appeared to be a massive shooting star that broke into a cluster of smaller fireballs as the satellite disintegrated.
“I just saw a meteor falling to earth in Mobile Alabama — it was huge and the trail was amazing!” posted one user on X.
“I convinced myself that someone had some strange Christmas lights up on a hill,” wrote another.
The satellite had been used for imaging by Beijing-based company SpaceView, McDowell said.
Not everyone is buying the “harmless space junk” narrative.
“Chinese satellites and Chinese drones over American soil. I mean what could go wrong,” wrote another.
Space debris falling back to Earth is very common, with 200-400 objects re-entering the atmosphere each year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Most of these completely disintegrate well before they reach the ground, and most pieces that remain intact land in the ocean.
There are around 30,000 pieces of floating space junk larger than a softball, and roughly 1,000 of those are as large as a spacecraft, NOAA said.
NASA keeps tabs on space junk with a Space Surveillance Network that uses a combination of space and ground-based equipment.
