A flash in the sky over the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday prompted confusion and alarm as city authorities said it was caused by a NASA satellite re-entering the atmosphere, but the US space agency denied involvement.
A “bright glow” was observed over Kyiv at about 10pm, the head of Kyiv’s military administration Sergiy Popko wrote on Telegram.
An air-raid alert was activated, Popko said, but “air defense was not in operation” in the besieged country fighting a Russian invasion.
Photo: Reuters
“According to preliminary information, this phenomenon was the result of a NASA space satellite falling to Earth,” Popko said.
However, a NASA spokesman denied the assessment, saying that the satellite in question was “still in orbit.”
The US space agency had announced this week that the retired 300kg Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite would re-enter the atmosphere on Wednesday.
“However, that re-entry has not yet occurred — RHESSI is still in orbit. NASA and the [US] Department of Defense continue to track RHESSI. No other NASA satellite re-entered the atmosphere earlier today,” a NASA spokesman told reporters.
The Ukrainian Air Force also said the flash was “related to the fall of a satellite/meteorite.”
Speculation and memes abounded on Ukrainian social media after videos posted to several channels showed a powerful flash lighting up the sky over Kyiv.
“While social media is amused by flying saucer memes ... please do not use the official symbol of the air force to create memes,” the Ukrainian Air Force said.
In a statement on Monday, NASA said it expected most of the RHESSI satellite to burn up as it enters the atmosphere.
“But some components are expected to survive re-entry,” NASA said, adding that the risk of harm to anyone on Earth was low — approximately one in 2,467.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS