A superb fireball lit up the night time sky over some southern states within the United States this weekend, however that was no meteor. It was Chinese house junk.
The fireball, which streaked over components of Missisippi, Arkansa and Missouri on Saturday night time (Dec. 21), was the dying knell of a defunct Chinese business Earth imaging satellite tv for pc known as Superview 1-02 (or GaoJing 1-02) because it burned up in Earth’s environment. Video of the Chinese house junk burning up exhibits it as a number of streaks of objects flaring up within the night time sky.
“The business imaging satellite tv for pc 高景一号02星 (GaoJing 1-02, Superview 1-02), operated by Beijing-based SpaceView (北京航天世景信息技术有限公司) reentered above New Orleans at 0408 UTC Dec 22 (1008 pm CST Dec 21) heading northbound in direction of MS, AR, MO and was extensively noticed,” wrote Jonathan McDowell, an astrosphycist on the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks satellite tv for pc launches and reentries, in a put up on X. He additionally shared the obvious monitor of the house particles.
The business imaging satellite tv for pc 高景一号02星 (GaoJing 1-02, Superview 1-02), operated by Beijing-based SpaceView (北京航天世景信息技术有限公司) reentered above New Orleans at 0408 UTC Dec 22 (10.08 pm CST Dec 21) heading northbound in direction of MS, AR, MO and was extensively noticed pic.twitter.com/GqbwpsAdb8December 22, 2024
The fireball was seen to stargazers throughout a minimum of 12 states throughout the southern U.S., with the American Meteor Society receiving a minimum of 120 reviews from Texas to Florida, and as far north as Indiana and Illinois.
Christopher Rainer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi, advised Channel 3 WLBT information that his company acquired some reviews of the fireball after 10 p.m. native time on Dec. 21. At the time, NWS officers believed it was a meteor breaking up within the higher environment that posed no hazard to folks on the bottom, WLBT reported.
The Superview 1-02 satellite tv for pc was considered one of two Superview 1 satellites launched into orbit in December 2016 for SpaceView by a Chinese Long March 2D rocket. (The different satellite tv for pc was, maybe unsurprisingly, known as Superview 1-01.) The launch was not with out its hiccups.
Instead of deploying the 2 satellites right into a round orbit about 330 miles (530 kilometers) above Earth, the satellites had been positioned into elliptical (or oval-shaped) orbits that ranked from 133 miles to 326 miles (214-524 km) above Earth, based on monitoring knowledge from the U.S. Air Force Joint Space Operations Center. Over time, the 2 satellites had been capable of regularly increase their orbits to start their mission.
The SuperView 1 satellites had been China’s first-ever business high-resolution Earth observations satellites. Each weighed about 1,235 kilos (560 kilograms) and carried cameras with a decision of about 0.5 per pixel.
SpaceView launched a collection of extra SuperView satellites in subsequent years to construct up an Earth-imaging constellation of spacecraft.
