A burning rocket observed in the sky in the middle of the night? What the pictures show

A ball of fire was seen in the middle of the night, in the sky. It could be a rocket.

From a distance, it could look like a (very) big (or very close) shooting star. But it is indeed fire that was seen in the sky in Japan, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday. Flaming trails passed through the Okiawa archipelago – located between Japan and Taiwan – surprising the inhabitants, some of whom did not fail to immortalize the “spectacle”. A few videos have circulated on social networks, fueling various theories on the origin of the phenomenon.

Meteorite or debris from an orbiting structure? According to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, it is debris from a rocket. While no pieces were recovered for analysis, “the slow speed and the way the light traveled, with threads of light moving in parallel, looks exactly like debris entering the atmosphere of a rocket.” According to the Japanese organization, it could be pieces of a Chinese rocket, launched in November.

The authority, however, warned that a priori, the population would not run any risk. According to their calculations, the debris simply fell into the water, without causing any consequences for the locals.