2023-04-20 14:24:25
Status: 04/20/2023 4:24 p.m
An unusual streak of light in the sky over Kiev caused an air raid alarm and hours of speculation regarding the cause in Ukraine. The space agency now assumes that it was a natural phenomenon.
A flash of light in the night sky has left hours of confusion in Kiev. The apparition was visible on Wednesday evening around 10 p.m. local time (9 p.m. CEST). At first there was speculation regarding a crashed NASA satellite or a Russian missile attack.
“An air alert has been called to avoid casualties from debris falling on the ground,” the city’s military administration said. The air defense was not active, it said. The Ukrainian space agency now assumes that a meteorite was the cause.
Images show huge glowing sphere
According to a journalist from the AFP news agency, the flash of light was not followed by thunder. Surveillance camera images released online showed a huge glowing orb descending and then appearing to explode.
Military administration chief Serhiy Popko had initially stated in the online service Telegram that according to “initial information” it was a matter of a satellite from the US space agency NASA crashing. However, NASA itself immediately rejected this: Although it had announced at the beginning of the week that its disused satellite Rhessi should fall to earth on Wednesday. A spokesman said this had not yet happened at the time of the flash.
Heavy explosion registered
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian space agency said its observation instruments had registered and located a violent explosion. The deputy head of the control center, Igor Korniyenko, said that the exact reason for this might not be determined due to the lack of data. But he thinks a falling meteorite is the most likely explanation. However, it did not hit the ground and no seismic data was recorded.
The residents of Kiev, who have been used to air alerts and shelling since February 2022, reacted rather calmly to the glow in the sky anyway: following the incident, jokes and memes regarding a possible landing of extraterrestrials and its effects on the defensive struggle once morest Russia made the rounds in online networks.
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