Chinese Satellite ‘Fireball’ Over US Mistaken for Ursid Meteor Shower [Video]

What’s New

A fiery spectacle over the southeastern United States on Saturday night left observers puzzled, with many mistaking the fireball for the annual Ursid meteor shower.

Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics confirmed on X that the phenomenon was the uncontrolled reentry of a Chinese satellite, GaoJing 1-02.

Why It Matters

Social media filled up with posts showing the burning objects in the sky, from Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee, with users unsure what they were witnessing.

As humans launch more satellites into space, reentries are becoming more commonly observed. In November, observers saw a SpaceX satellite make a fiery return to Earth over Colorado, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

Image Credit: Lyza C via the American Meteor Society.

What to Know

People posted images …