TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A fireball seen streaking across the night sky on Wednesday in northern Taiwan and Okinawa is believed to be the wreckage from a Chinese rocket burning up in the atmosphere, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and Japanese astronomers.
At 7:30 p.m., people near Huilong MRT Station in New Taipei City saw a fireball soaring in the sky. Taiwanese in Taoyuan City and as far south as Nantou County also reported seeing the flying orb.
Alfin Niones, a 34-year-old factory worker from the Philippines, sent photos and video of the burning object. He said that he saw it flying over the factory of his employer, Far Eastern New Century in Hsinchu County.
In addition, pilots patrolling the skies over Taiwan in Mirage 2000 fighter jets also saw the fireball, according to the Air Force. The defense ministry said that its preliminary judgment is the object was the space wreckage of a rocket launched by China.
Astronomers at Lulin Observatory told PTS News that based on the slow speed of the object's flight and low orbit, they believe that it was a man-made object. Chang Yung-hin (張永欣), an assistant at the observatory, said:
"The speed and angle of natural meteors is very different. Judging from these two points, it is a man-made celestial body falling. It is most likely an artificial satellite or a rocket that has been orbiting the Earth. The wreckage of it should be quite large.”
Hsieh Hsiang-yu (謝翔宇), a research team technician at the Taipei Astronomical Museum, was cited by TTV News as saying, "The incident last night lasted up to two minutes, and it was more than likely a man-made object falling from outer space, which is commonly known as 'space junk.'" Hsieh said that as the visible range was wide, the object was likely at a high altitude.
At the same time, people in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture saw the object even more clearly, flying from west to east for about one minute.
Astronomers from Japan's Ishigaki Island Observatory were cited by NHK as saying that a Long March 3B rocket launched by China in November 2022 was projected to enter the atmosphere on Wednesday evening. It had been predicted that the remains of the rocket would fly directly over the main island of Okinawa or slightly north.
Daichi Fujii, a curator at Hiratsuka City Museum in Kanagawa Prefecture, was cited by Nippon TV News as saying the phenomenon was caused by the burning wreckage of a Long March 3B launch vehicle that had lifted off in November 2022.
As for why the wreckage of the rocket launched last year did not fall until this year, Fujii said that after the launch of the satellite, the rocket would have been drifting in space, but it would slowly roll out of its orbit and eventually fall back to earth.
Fireball seen in New Taipei. (Alfin Niones photo)
沖縄の空に何やら怪しい火球が…#沖縄#流れ星#火球 pic.twitter.com/iyCZfMOuJx
— 勝又 智也 (@axcel625) May 10, 2023
【火球のような光】
今日5月10日(水)の20時半すぎ、沖縄の夜空に光の筋が目撃されました。
流星よりはゆっくりと長時間発光していて、彗星とも動きが異なります。
ロケットや人工衛星などの人工物が地球の大気圏に再突入し燃え尽きる際に見られる光と類似しています。https://t.co/MJDfjOlyQA pic.twitter.com/SksoKoWDBd
— ウェザーニュース (@wni_jp) May 10, 2023
