Residents of the United States witnessed a spectacular sight: the Starlink satellite fell to Earth and burned like a fireball. Video
Thousands of residents of the southeastern United States witnessed an impressive sight. They reported an unknown flying object that began to disintegrate right before their eyes.
Some believed it to be a meteorite, while others claimed that lights from a UFO were flashing in the sky. However, in fact, the source of the celestial show was the Starlink satellite, which fell to Earth and burned like a fireball, Space.com reports.
According to astronomer and spacecraft researcher Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the bright object was probably the Starlink 4682 satellite launched in August 2022.
The craft flew over Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Oklahoma before finally breaking up in the sky over Texas.
Map showing the location of fireball reports filed on November 10.
Source: AMS/Google Maps
According to eyewitness reports provided to the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the fireball was spectacular. "Best thing ever," wrote Kevin W. from McKinney, Texas.
"The most amazing thing I've seen in a very long time," shared another witness in Canton.
"I saw it as a shiny area that became a big fireball that split," described Ryan T. of Kaufman.
As more and more of these Starlink re-entries occur and SpaceX continues to launch satellites on a weekly basis, some astronomers and environmentalists say the effects of these re-entries are not well understood and could harm the Earth's atmosphere.
According to experts, when these satellites burn up in the atmosphere, they release harmful aluminum oxide, which can damage the Earth's protective ozone layer and change its ability to reflect sunlight. These factors change the temperature of the upper atmosphere.
"If we do nothing, we will see a global impact over the next 10 years," said Minkwan Kim, associate professor of astronautics at the University of Southampton in the UK.
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