Incredible ‘fireballs’ light up US sky, experts say it was SpaceX debris

Strange fireworks ignited skies over the American states of Washington and Oregon on March 26, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents horrified. Shortly after the surprise happened, people started blasting social media platforms with pictures and videos of it. The show also encouraged profiteering among netizens about the bright objects with light and many came to the conclusion that it was a ‘meteor shower’.

As the commotion caught the attention of astronauts and experts, they took it upon themselves to get details of the light display. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who was affiliated with the Center for Astrophysics and the National Weather Service (NWS) tweeted that it was not a shower but space debris. Adding to it, other experts later revealed that the SpaceX Falcon 9 ‘s second – stage rocket debris failed to de-orbit and fire up after launch, but recovered about 22 days later.

In addition, he also shared some fun facts about space debris. In his post, he wrote, “A crash like the one over Seattle occurs at about 60 km (~ 40 miles) up, far above where planes fly (more like 10 km).” In addition, he also pointed out that space agencies could predict that this rocket level would appear on that date. “But as of yesterday the LOT at the reappearance was still uncertain by 5 hours,” he said.

Just last month, skies over Queensland were lit by lightning lights as debris from a Chinese rocket flew past the Australian state. The unconventional view of social media users led to photos and videos of the space debris being burned up as it returned into Earth’s atmosphere. Experts have chosen that space debris threatens satellites orbiting the planet, so it’s best to burn them up in the earth’s atmosphere itself.

What is space debris?

Like NASA, most orbital debris consists of man-made objects, such as spacecraft pieces, tiny spacecraft hulls, parts of rockets, satellites that no longer work. , or explosions of objects in orbit flying around in space at high speeds. Space waste is not the responsibility of one country, but the responsibility of each space country. The problem of space debris management is both an international challenge and an opportunity to preserve the space environment for future space exploration missions.

Image: JoshVester / Twitter