Videos of the apparent fireballs in the sky over Japan were posted to social media Wednesday night, with residents and bystanders speculating about what might have caused the phenomenon.
空から光った何かが降って来てる #沖縄#okinawan pic.twitter.com/lL1ehohK54
– shokosan (@shokosan_marine) May 10, 2023
The streaks of light may have been caused by space debris from a Chinese-launched rocket, Japanese officials said Thursday.
The Ishigaki branch of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in Okinawa said it observed the beams of light at 8:33 p.m. local time, an official told AFP.
“Given publicly available information, we believe the objects are not meteorite fireballs, but missile debris,” said an observatory official who requested not to be identified.
“The slow speed and the way the light moved, beams of light moving parallel, it looked just like the atmospheric debris intake from a rocket,” the official said. “It is possible that they are debris from a missile launched by China in November.”
“There is information that part of the rocket was expected to re-enter the atmosphere around this time,” the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan official said.
It is likely that the debris fell into the sea and posed no danger, he added, citing predictions about the route the missile would have taken.
“It was beautiful, it looked like a weeping cherry tree,” one Twitter user wrote of the phenomenon. “But it’s good to know it wasn’t something dangerous.”
Source: DN
