Russia's rocket space junk triggers speculations of meteor sighting in Australia

Residents of Australia’s Victoria reported a meteor-like bright streak of light on May 22 which turned out to be debris from a Russian Soyuz rocket re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. Social media was flooded with the videos of the night sky in Kyneton, Echuca and Cashmore and eye-witnesses wondered about the source of the light.

A Facebook account named ‘Victorian Storm Chasers’ shared the video with the title 'Meteor sighting' and it immediately went viral. “EPIC!! Check out this incredible vision captured by Mel Aldridge not long ago at Cashmore near Portland! We're getting plenty of reports. Please ensure you mention who took the vision and where,” wrote the Facebook page.

Several netizens thought it was a meteor entering the earth’s atmosphere and some of them even triggered the speculation of disintegrating satellite and alien invasion. “I'm no expert but how could something last that long in the Earth's atmosphere in that state without fragmenting and burning up completely? No sonic boom I guess as nothing reported. Very interesting indeed (sic),” commented a user. Check out some of the other reactions:

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Soyuz-2-1b debris

However, experts observed that it wasn’t a meteor or alien spacecraft because of the speed of the object. Perry Vlahos, vice president of the Astronomical Society of Victoria, reportedly said that the slow-moving object at a shallow angle and the amount of disintegration gave it away that it was neither a meteor nor an alien spacecraft. According to media reports, Russia launched the Soyuz-2-1b rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on May 22 and the object was the space junk from the rocket that re-entered the atmosphere.

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