Skywatchers in Spain were given a fright this morning after witnessing a series of slow-moving fireballs across the dawn sky.
Many people took to social media to share photos and video, speculating that the bright lights could have been a meteor shower.
But experts said the more likely explanation was debris from a Chinese rocket that launched into space at the beginning of June.
José María Madiedo, of the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics, said the upper stage of the Long March-2F rocket, which was blasted into orbit as part of a mission to China‘s new Tiangong space station, had re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
It then broke into multiple fragments which became incandescent, he added, sparking a row of fireballs that were seen above Malaga, Seville, Huelva and Granada.
One eyewitness, John Rodgers, filmed the debris lighting up the night sky above Fuengirola shortly after midnight this morning (Tuesday).
Surprise: Skywatchers in Spain were given a fright this morning after witnessing a series of slow-moving fireballs across the dawn sky
Many people took to social media to share photos and video, speculating that the bright lights could have been a meteor shower
Astronomers said the fireballs would also have been visible much further north, in places such as Toledo, Madrid and Valladolid.
They added that the re-entry took place over the Atlantic, off the coast of Morocco.
Madiedo said the debris from the rocket then moved north-east, over Tetuán in northern Morocco, before continuing over the Mediterranean.
There, about 60 miles (100 km) off the coast of Algeria and Murcia, the fireballs fizzled out.
The Long March-2F was launched by the Chinese Space Agency on June 5 as part of the Shenzhou 14 mission, which delivered three astronauts to the Tiangong.
While there, the trio have been tasked with ‘completing in-orbit assembly and construction of the space station’, as well as ‘commissioning of equipment’ and conducting scientific experiments onboard.
The Tiangong station, which means ‘heavenly palace’, was launched in April 2021 with the Tianhe habitation unit, and will have its own power, propulsion, life support systems and living quarters for astronauts.
It is expected to become fully operational by the end of the year.
China is only the third country in history to have both put astronauts into space and built a space station, after the US and Soviet Union.
When completed, Tiangong will be similar to the Soviet Mir station that orbited Earth from the 1980s until 2001, and the hope is that it will last for at least a decade.
It sits about 340 miles above the Earth’s surface, about 100 miles higher than the International Space Station (ISS), and is about a fifth the mass of the ISS.
However, experts said the more likely explanation was debris from a Chinese rocket that launched into space at the beginning of June
China’s Long March-2F rocket from the Shenzhou 14 mission blasted into space on June 5
Filming of the rocket debris fireballs comes just days after one of Elon Musk‘s boosters gave New Zealanders a spectacular sight at the weekend — when it dumped its fuel and created a glowing blue swirl in the night sky.
The exhaust plume came from a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster which had just blasted a satellite into space, despite some thinking it might have an extraterrestrial link.
As the rocket spun to vent its fuel, it created a vapour trail that reflected the sunlight and produced a visible blue swirl that eyewitnesses said moved ‘serenely’ across the night sky.
The plume lit up the sky over Nelson, a city at the tip of New Zealand’s south island, and travelled 466 miles (750km) south to Stewart Island by about 7.30pm on Sunday.
The two-stage rocket had been launched on Sunday morning from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
‘Fascinating’: One of Elon Musk’s rockets gave New Zealanders a spectacular sight at the weekend – when it dumped its fuel and created a glowing blue swirl in the night sky (pictured)
TIMELINE OF CHINESE SPACE MILESTONES
The Shenzhou-12 spacecraft is launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 17, 2021 in Jiuquan, Gansu Province of China, carried on the Long March-2F rocket, to Chinese Tiangong space station
July 19, 1964: China took its first official step into space, launching and recovering an experimental biological rocket carrying white mice.
April 24, 1970: The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1, was launched from the Jiuquan launch centre in the northwestern province of Gansu. That made China the fifth country to send satellites into orbit, following the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan.
Nov. 26, 1975: China launched its first recoverable satellite.
Nov. 20, 1999: China launched its first unmanned spacecraft, the Shenzhou-1.
Oct. 15, 2003: China became the third country after the United States and Russia to send a man into space with its own rocket. Astronaut Yang Liwei spent about 21 hours in space aboard the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft.
Oct. 12, 2005: China sent two men on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou-6 spacecraft.
Nov. 5, 2007: China’s first lunar orbiter, Chang’e-1, entered the moon’s orbit 12 days after takeoff.
Sept. 25, 2008: China’s third manned spacecraft, Shenzhou-7, was launched into space, where an astronaut clambered out of the spacecraft for the nation’s first space walk.
Oct. 1, 2010: China’s second lunar exploration probe blasted off from a remote corner of the southwestern province of Sichuan.
Sept. 29, 2011: The Tiangong-1, or ‘Heavenly Palace 1’, China’s first space lab, was launched to carry out docking and orbiting experiments.
Nov. 3, 2011: China carried out its first docking exercise between two unmanned spacecraft, the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft and Tiangong-1 module, a key test to securing a long-term manned presence in space.
Dec. 14, 2013: China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon in the first ‘soft-landing’ since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in accomplishing the feat.
Sept. 15, 2016:China launched its second experimental space laboratory, the Tiangong-2, part of a broader plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022.
Jan. 3, 2019: The Chang’e-4 lunar probe, launched in December, touched down on the far side of the moon. Previous spacecraft have flown over the far side but not landed on it.
June 23, 2020: China put into orbit its final Beidou satellite, completing a navigation network years in the making and setting the stage to challenge the U.S.-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
July 23, 2020: China launched an unmanned probe to Mars in its first independent mission to another planet.
Nov. 24, 2020: China launched an uncrewed mission, the Chang’e-5, with the aim of collecting lunar material to help scientists learn more about the moon’s origins.
Dec. 1, 2020: China landed the Chang’e-5 probe on the moon’s surface.
April 29, 2021: China launched Tianhe, the first and largest of three modules of its upcoming space station.
May 15, 2021: China became the second country after the United States to land a robotic rover on the surface of Mars.
June 17, 2021: China launched the crewed Shenzhou-12 spacecraft to dock with Tianhe.
October 15, 2021: China launched the crewed Shenzhou-13 spacecraft to dock with the country’s new Tiangong space station.
June 5, 2022: China launched the crewed Shenzhou-14 spacecraft to dock with Tiangong.
<!—->
Advertisement
