A MYSTERIOUS blazing fireball lit up the sky in China before it shattered and vanished.
Shocking footage captured by residents of Beijing showed the strange object falling from the night sky before breaking into smaller pieces as it got closer to the ground.
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The dazzling object was burning so bright that it briefly turned the night sky in China into day.
Interestingly, a similar ball of fire was seen falling from the sky on the same night in the Gansu province – almost 1,000 miles away from Beijing.
The meteor-like object apparently travelled all the way from Gansu to the Chinese capital before it broke up and vanished in the night sky.
While some people said it was a celestial object that came from space, others speculated it could be part of the debris that fell from the International Space Station.
Excited spectators who saw the event flocked to social media platforms to share their thoughts.
One such person said: “It’s not a meteor, it is space junk.”
Another shared: “I was having a barbecue outdoors that day and was lucky enough to see it. I didn’t have time to pick up my phone though.”
A third questioned: “Was it a meteorite that fell?”
Just a few days ago, a similar fireball thought to have been a part of space debris was spotted falling over California.
Experts claimed the dazzling object was a chunk of a Chinese spacecraft.
It left many people concerned in Southern California as they didn’t know what they were witnessing, sparking UFO conspiracy theories.
The strange sight was visible from the Sacramento area down to San Diego.
A total of 81 people reported seeing the event, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).
Astrophysicist and satellite expert Jonathan McDowell soon tweeted that the sighting was a falling chunk of the rocket.
Specifically, the orbital module of China’s Shenzhou 15 craft.
“This was the reentry of the Shenzhou 15 orbital module, over S California circa 0140 PDT Apr 2,” McDowell wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
That rocket was launched into space by China in November 2022.
No one was hurt but the event led to increased discussion about space debris and space launch safety.
WHAT IS KESSLER SYNDROME?
Some experts are worried that space debris could leave humans trapped on Earth…
- Kessler Syndrome is a concept thought up by the Nasa scientist Donald J. Kessler.
- It refers to the idea that a chain reaction of exploding space debris could create so much space junk in the Low Earth Orbit that we’d be trapped on Earth.
- It could also mean we wouldn’t have the use of satellites because they’d be broken up during the collisions.
- The theory is based on the fact that there are already millions of micrometeoroids orbiting Earth, along with all the new manmade items we’re putting up there.
- A piece of tiny space rock colliding at speed could cause a dynamite amount of damage.
- This could then trigger a chain reaction of exploding space junk, leaving Earth’s orbit full of fragmented pieces of satellites and space debris.
- Services like GPS and television rely on satellites so Kessler Syndrome could change people’s lives forever.
- Once a space debris explosion reaction starts it could take tens of years before it ends.
- This could ruin safe space travel.
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