A superb fireball lit up the night time sky over some southern states in the US this weekend, however that was no meteor. It was Chinese language area junk.
The fireball, which streaked over components of Missisippi, Arkansa and Missouri on Saturday night time (Dec. 21), was the loss of life knell of a defunct Chinese language industrial Earth imaging satellite tv for pc referred to as Superview 1-02 (or GaoJing 1-02) because it burned up in Earth’s environment. Video of the Chinese language area junk burning up reveals it as a number of streaks of objects flaring up within the night time sky.
“The industrial 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 broadly noticed,” wrote Jonathan McDowell, an astrosphycist on the Harvard Smithsonian Heart for Astrophysics who tracks satellite tv for pc launches and reentries, in a submit on X. He additionally shared the obvious monitor of the area particles.
The industrial 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 broadly noticed pic.twitter.com/GqbwpsAdb8December 22, 2024
The fireball was seen to stargazers throughout at the very least 12 states throughout the southern U.S., with the American Meteor Society receiving at the very least 120 studies from Texas to Florida, and as far north as Indiana and Illinois.
Christopher Rainer, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service in Jackson, Mississippi, informed Channel 3 WLBT information that his company acquired some studies of the fireball after 10 p.m. native time on Dec. 21. On 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 one in all two Superview 1 satellites launched into orbit in December 2016 for SpaceView by a Chinese language Lengthy March 2D rocket. (The opposite satellite tv for pc was, maybe unsurprisingly, referred to as Superview 1-01.) The launch was not with out its hiccups.
As a substitute of deploying the 2 satellites right into a round orbit about 330 miles (530 kilometers) above Earth, the satellites have been positioned into elliptical (or oval-shaped) orbits that ranked from 133 miles to 326 miles (214-524 km) above Earth, in keeping with monitoring information from the U.S. Air Power Joint Area Operations Heart. Over time, the 2 satellites have been capable of progressively increase their orbits to start their mission.
The SuperView 1 satellites have been China’s first-ever industrial high-resolution Earth observations satellites. Every weighed about 1,235 kilos (560 kilograms) and carried cameras with a decision of about 0.5 per pixel.
SpaceView launched a sequence of extra SuperView satellites in subsequent years to construct up an Earth-imaging constellation of spacecraft.
