People in several regions in the United States were treated to spectacular views of a satellite breaking up in the sky. According to reports, the fiery debris falling over New Orleans belonged to the GaoJing 1-02 commercial imaging satellite which reentered the atmosphere on December 22. After reentering at about 27,400 km per hour, it headed towards states such as Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri, Live Science reported.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, shared the trajectory of the satellite on X.
"The commercial imaging satellite (GaoJing 1-02, Superview 1-02), operated by Beijing-based SpaceView reentered above New Orleans at 0408 UTC Dec 22 (10.08 pm CST Dec 21) heading northbound towards MS, AR, MO and was widely observed," he posted on X.
Videos of the satellite reentering as a fireball with a long fiery tail are also going viral on social media.
The Chinese satellite was reportedly launched in late 2016 and according to McDowell, it was inoperational for the last two years.
"Reentry of low orbit sats happens naturally, you have to fire engines to reboost the orbit to avoid it, and this sat was switched off almost 2 years ago," he wrote. The scientist also added that the satellite almost entirely burned up during the atmospheric entry and thus its parts are unlikely to have struck the ground.
Notably, this comes just a few days after part of a Chinese rocket disintegrated over Puerto Rico. The Long March rocket, which was 44 metres long reportedly took off in August with the classified Yaogan-43 satellites and it started losing altitude over the next four months.
ALSO SEE: Starlink Satellite Captured Falling Back To Earth Over The US In Apocalyptic Video
ALSO SEE: Geminid Meteor Shower Puts On Thrilling Show For Skygazers Across The World; Videos Surface