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A Formosan satellite has dramatically disintegrate over the U.S. in a mesmerizing " fireball . " The spacecraft ’s ardent demise was seeable across several body politic , footage reveals .
The GaoJing 1 - 02 commercial-grade imaging satellite was traveling at 17,000 miles per hour ( 27,400 km / h ) when it reentered our atmosphere above New Orleans at 10:08 p.m CST ( 11.08 p.m. EST on Dec. 21 ) . It then headed northward towards Mississippi , Arkansas and Missouri , Jonathan McDowell , an astrophysicist at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , write on Bluesky .
A photo of the satellite fireball over Gulfport in Mississippi.
" The sat has been blank space dust and dead as a doornail since Jan 2023 , " McDowell said in response to a input asking whether the reentry was planned . " This was an uncontrolled reentry . "
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The GaoJing 1 - 02 orbiter , or Superview 1 - 02 , launched at the end of 2016 , according toNASA . McDowellnoted on the social chopine Xthat the satellite was switched off almost two years ago , so it was only a topic of fourth dimension before it fell back down to Earth .
" Reentry of downhearted area sats bump naturally , you have to fire locomotive engine to reboost the orbit to stave off it , and this sit was exchange off almost 2 years ago , " McDowell save .
Does anyone know what this is ? Seen in Memphis tonight pic.twitter.com/BN6M3dQl5MDecember 22 , 2024
As the orbiter disintegrated in our atmosphere , social media lit up with a series of photographs and videos of the event , while the American Meteor Society received120 reportsof a " powerhouse . " Some skywatchers mistake the satellite for theUrsid meteor shower , which also peaked over the weekend .
McDowellnotedthat the satellite was small enough to almost exclusively burn up before hitting the ground , and it is n’t yet exculpated whether any pieces survived .
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The satellite is the second Formosan ballistic capsule to combust up over North America in recent daylight . On Friday ( Dec. 20 ) , the Astronomical Society of the Caribbean , or Sociedad de Astronomía del Caribe ( SAC),filmeda Chinese arugula decay above Puerto Rico .
The Longmarch 4B , or CZ-4B rocket , launchedfrom the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Aug. 16 . The rocket was 145 feet ( 44 metre ) long and took the classifiedYaogan-43 satellitesto space , before losing altitude over the next four months , Eddie Irizarry , aNASAsolar systemambassador and prexy of the scientific dissemination committee at SAC , reported for EarthSky .
" The rocket body was gradually losing height , " Irizarry wrote . " Eventually , atmospheric pull induce it to decompose as it reached an EL of around 70 miles ( 113 km ) over Puerto Rico . "
