A bright “meteor” over Australia turned out to be a Russian missile

Author:
Anna Kholodnova
Date:

A bright flash was noticed in the sky over southeastern Australia on August 7. Witnesses assumed it was a meteor, but the mysterious space object turned out to be the remains of a Russian rocket returning to Earth after launching a satellite.

The Washington Post writes about it.

"We have determined that flashes of light seen in the Melbourne sky overnight are likely remnants of a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket re-entering the Earthʼs atmosphere," the Australian Space Agency stated on August 8.

The statement said the Russians had given advance notice of the launch and that the remnants of the missile were expected to enter the atmosphere safely over the ocean off the southeast coast of Tasmania.

Scientists have said that fragments of a rocket over Australia are unlikely to threaten human life, but attention should be paid to the problem of space debris, which is increasingly filling the Earthʼs orbit.