The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSA) writes that the most likely cause of yesterdayʼs explosion over Kyiv is the fall of a meteorite from the Lyrid stream.
Comet Thatcherʼs plume leaves behind the Lyrid meteor shower. The Earth passes through this plume every year in April. This year, our planet entered it on April 15, and will leave it on April 29. The peak of the shooting star is predicted for April 21.
Lyrids are fast and bright meteors that donʼt leave long trails as they hurtle through Earthʼs atmosphere, but instead cause bright flashes in the sky.
- In the evening of April 19, a bright flash was visible over Kyiv and the region. After that, the alarm was announced.
- At that time, the head of the Presidentʼs Office Andriy Yermak wrote that the "UFO" in Kyiv is the work of air defense. Later, he deleted the post and urged to wait for official information from the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
- The Kyiv City Military Administration (KCMA) noted that, previously, this phenomenon was the result of a NASA space satellite falling to Earth, and an air alert was announced to avoid victims from falling debris.
- The Air Force also said that the flares over Kyiv were linked to the fall of a satellite or meteorite, but added that the data was being verified.
- NASA denied the information that their satellite could be the cause of the flares over Kyiv. They emphasized that the RHESSI satellite was still in orbit when the flares were seen over Kyiv.
- Subsequently, the head of the KCMA Serhiy Popko informed that the military administration has not yet established the nature of the outbreak over Kyiv, and emphasized that it was neither a missile attack, nor the work of air defense, nor the fall of a satellite.
- In the evening of April 19, the Main Special Control Center recorded a "high-energy acoustic event" with an epicenter in the Kyiv region, and it is assumed that the outbreak is connected with the entry into the atmosphere of a cosmic body.