Fiery streaks of light across the night sky over southern Japan may have caused by space debris from a rocket launched by China. Japanese officials said on Thursday (May 11).
Video of the apparent fireballs lit up social media on Wednesday night with residents. And users speculating on what might have caused the unusual display.
Also, The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)’s Ishigaki branch in Okinawa said. Also, an official told AFP that it observed the streaks of light at 8.33 pm on Wednesday (7.33 pm, Singapore time).
“Given the information publicly available, we think the falling objects are not fireballs from meteorites. But debris from a rocket,” said a NAOJ official, who declined to be named.
“The slow speed and the way the light moved – threads of lights moving in parallel – looked exactly like the atmospheric entry of debris from a rocket,” he said.
“It is possible that (it was) debris from a rocket launched by China in November,” he added.
“There is information that part of the rocket was expected to re-enter the atmosphere around this time,” he said.
The debris likely fell into the ocean and posed no danger. Besides, he added, citing predictions of the route it would have taken.
“It was beautiful, it looked like a weeping cherry blossom tree. One Twitter user wrote of the display.