Dead Chinese satellite burns up in the night sky over the US as a brilliant fireball. Video

A bright orb lit up the night sky over some of the southern states of the United States. But it wasn't a meteor, it was a dead Chinese satellite.

According to eyewitnesses, the brilliant fireball flashed over parts of Mississippi and Missouri on Saturday night (December 21). Scientists say these are the remains of a defunct Chinese commercial satellite called Superview 1-02, Space.com reports.

In the video that appeared online, the Chinese space debris burns in the Earth's atmosphere and scatters into several streaks that flash in the night sky.

"The commercial imaging satellite 高景一号02星 (GaoJing 1-02, Superview 1-02), operated by Beijing-based SpaceView reentered above New Orleans at 0408 UTC Dec 22 (1008 pm CST Dec 21) heading northbound towards MS, AR, MO and was widely observed," Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks satellite launches and re-entries, wrote on his X page.

The American Meteor Society received at least 120 reports of the fireball from observers in 12 states in the southern United States.

The burned satellite was one of two Superview 1 ones launched into orbit in December 2016 by Chinese Long March 2D rocket.

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