Meteor shower or Chinese rocket re-entry? Rare event light up skies of Maharashtra, MP
A meteor shower is a celestial event during which several meteors are seen to radiate or originate, from one point in the night sky.
A blazing streak of light cutting through the night sky took skywatchers by surprise in parts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh as they speculated the unusual event to be a meteor shower. The pictures and videos of the activity were shared on social media on Saturday evening.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell referred to the event seen over Maharashtra as a possible "re-entry of a Chinese rocket stage" that was launched in February 2021.
"I believe this is the reentry of a Chinese rocket stage, the third stage of the Chang Zheng 3B serial number Y77 which was launched in Feb 2021 - it was expected to reenter in the next hour or so and the track is a good match," McDowell, who is an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, wrote on Twitter.
Suresh Chopade, president of Skywatch group, Nagpur, said the rare event was observed by several people in Maharashtra and it seems like the event was related to a satellite.
"It seems like a satellite of some nation might have fallen accidentally or may have been caused to fall intentionally. It does not seem like a meteor shower or fireball," Chopade said.
He didn't rule out the possibility of a meteor shower but added that the colours indicated that "a metallic thing" has accompanied it while coming towards earth.
Sharing a video of the event, one person wrote, "#Comet shower seen in the western region of India. This was drop-dead gorgeous. @NASA @isro @neiltyson #Nagpur #Amravati #Dhule #Akola."
Another person tweeted a video saying, "#meteor #meteorshower 7:46 PM 2 April 2022 Above Nagpur, Maharashtra."
"Meteorite seen disintegrating over Nagpur. #ISRO #NASA #Nagpur #India #TrendingNow."
"Something unusual spotted this evening at Kalmeshwar, Nagpur Does anyone have an idea? #ISRO #NASA #InternationalSpaceStation #Nagpur #India #universe #IPL @MayurGarode @isro."
A meteor shower is a celestial event during which several meteors are seen to radiate or originate, from one point in the night sky.
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