NASA Denies A Bizarre, Blinding Flash That Lit Up The Skies Was A Falling Satellite

Residents in Kyiv were left baffled after a bright object was observed in the sky around 22:00 local time. The object was at first thought to be a NASA satellite reentering Earth's atmosphere, but the space agency responded that the satellite in question was still in orbit at the time of the sighting.

The Ukrainian Air Force quickly dismissed the possibility of the bright light originating from a Russian air attack, even though an air raid alert was activated. The head of Kyiv's military administration, Serhiy Popko, indicated on Telegram that the "air defence was not in operation" during that time period.

A Twitter post with video footage of the bright light breaking apart and then disappearing brought about a few different theories as to what the incident may have been. Some of the suggested causes included a UFO, something being shot down by air defence, and a meteor burning up as it entered Earth's atmosphere.

Harvard astronomer Jonathon McDowell tweeted that the incident on Wednesday in Kyiv could not have been a satellite. He remarked, "The bright flash seen over Kyiv has NOTHING TO DO with the re-entry of NASA's RHESSI satellite, whose orbit doesn't come within thousands of kilometers of Ukraine."

Sam Rolfe, an astronomer from the University of Hertfordshire, told Insider, "It looks pretty much a very standard fireball, a piece of space rock larger than a typical meteor or a shooting star."

Rolfe, and others, speculated that the size, light trail, color, and bright flash were all in line with a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere. If it were a space rock, it is suspected to have been between the size of a football and a washing machine.

Whatever the cause of the bright light was, Kyiv officials said it was up to experts to figure it out. The safety of the city's residents was most important to them at this point and time.