Watch – not a meteorite shower but Chinese space rocket bits falling back to earth

Watch - not a meteorite shower but Chinese space rocket bits falling back to earth

Chinese rocket falling to earth - Image Marina Alta Astronomical Association

Monday’s meteor shower has turned out not to be meteors but bits of a Chinese Space Agency rocket that was falling back to earth.

More images were posted captured by the meteor detection unit shared by the Astronomical Association of the Marina Alta and the Costa Blanca Astronomical Society, capturing the falling pieces that created spectacular trails through the night sky on Monday night.

The show, which could be seen all along the eastern and southern seaboard of Spain, occurred half an hour after midnight.

According to the Astronomical Association, the objects correspond to the fragmentation of a Chinese Space Agency rocket that was launched on June 5. That launch took three astronauts to the China space station that is nearing completion.

The re-entry of the rocket took place over the Atlantic, off the coast of Morocco. From there, the remains of the rocket advanced in a northeasterly direction, flying over the Strait of Gibraltar and continuing over the Mediterranean Sea, passing very close to the coast of Almería. Finally, the burned remains died out over the Mediterranean, between the coasts of Murcia and Algeria.

The Astronomical Association of the Marina Alta and the Costa Blanca Astronomical Society, collaborate on a project that is coordinated by members of the Physics Department of the University of Western Ontario, in London, (Ontario) Canada. That project is known as the Global Meteor Network (GMN), a worldwide network of amateur and professional astronomers, who observe the night sky using automatic video cameras for weak lighting conditions, which allows them to track and generate the trajectories of meteorites in a coordinated manner.


Original story – June 21

A spectacular meteor shower took place off the coast of Fuengirola overnight on June 20, which you can watch below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CfC2vujqNsl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Meteor showers typically occur when asteroids enter the earth’s atmosphere burning up as they travel through the sky. As they burn up they create what many of us used to call shooting stars, as they light up the sky leaving behind a ray of light.

For more information on meteorites and astronomy in Spain visit OAN.


Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Author badge placeholder
Written by

Peter McLaren-Kennedy

Originally from South Africa, Peter is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for the Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

Comments


    • Josh taylor

      21 June 2022 • 15:15

      I have a video of this 🙂

    Comments are closed.