A flash in the skies of kyiv, which caused a lot of reactions on social networks, was caused by the fall of a NASA satellite, according to the city administration.
“Around 10 p.m., the glow of an aerial object was observed in the sky of Kyiv,” Kyiv City Military Administration official Sergiy Popko said on Telegram. “According to initial information, this phenomenon is the consequence of the fall of a NASA satellite on earth,” he added.
An AFP journalist saw a flash in the sky which was followed by no sound. The air alert was activated, Mr. Popko stressed, while specifying that “the air defense did not come into action”.
BREAKING �� Flash in sky over Kyiv due to ‘NASA satellite falling,’ city administration says pic.twitter.com/wuRzycZOaK
Shortly after, the Ukrainian Air Force also claimed that the flash was “related to the fall of a satellite/meteorite”, while stating that this was yet to be clarified.
“Social media is having fun spreading flying saucer memes, but please don’t use the official Air Force logo to make memes,” the force added.
A few hours earlier, NASA had indicated that it would send a retired satellite into the Earth’s atmosphere. Nearly 21 years after its launch, a 300 kg spacecraft passes through the Earth’s atmosphere on the night of Wednesday April 19 to Thursday April 20. Satellite named RHESSI, its fall towards the Earth must cause its self-destruction, as noted by Ouest-France.
Since 2018, the spacecraft had been experiencing communication issues which led NASA to make this decision. RHESSI was used to observe solar flares between February 5, 2002 and August 16, 2018.
When a satellite is sent into the atmosphere, the craft burns up, although “some components should survive”, according to NASA. But don’t worry, there’s a 1 in 2,467 chance for a human to come into contact with one of these pieces of debris.
As a precaution, the trajectory of the retired satellite will be under the control of the United States Department of Defense. NASA explained that the craft would enter the Earth’s atmosphere around 3 a.m., while specifying that there is “an uncertainty of more or less 16 hours”.
During its operation, when it was functional, the RHESSI satellite studied the solar star for a complete cycle, for 11 years. It “recorded more than 100,000 X-ray events,” which allowed scientists “to study energetic particles from solar flares,” NASA points out.
And for his departure, the sun seemed to pay homage to him as an eclipse will also take place on the night of April 19-20 and will be visible from Australia.