Watch people lose their minds to SpaceX rocket debris lighting up the sky – BGR

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Chances are, your Thursday night social media feed likely included photos and videos of the Pacific Northwest night sky, thanks to many people aiming their smartphones at an equally stunning light show. and mysterious unfolding above them. They ran to capture the video of… anything, marveling at the display that looked like something really dazzling and ethereal. “Ummm… I just saw it fly over my house in southwest Portland” a Twitter user wrote. Tweeted another: “Shooting stars? Debris? Has anyone else seen this in Seattle right now?”

There was a bit of confusion and speculation at first about what was really going on – whether it was a meteor shower, for example, or some sort of space debris falling into the atmosphere. Many people have certainly seen it, from Oregon to northern Canada, with video clips posted to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. For now, the consensus seems to be that this was SpaceX rocket debris that people were seeing, according to information from authorities, including the Seattle office of the National Weather Service.

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Seattle office posted on twitter that what people saw was debris from a 2nd stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that failed to burn out of orbit and re-enter the atmosphere after launching earlier this month. “Based on the observed video, it seems more likely than a bolide meteor or similar object as they would move much faster upon impact with our atmosphere.” the office’s official Twitter account has been added. “There is NO impact expected on the ground in our region at this time. More information will be posted as it becomes available. “

SpaceX, at least as of this writing, has not confirmed that this is what it is. Nonetheless, people quickly turned to this assumption anyway, including the sources of information. “We had a really good show tonight thanks to SpaceX,” James Davenport, a University of Washington astronomer, told NBC affiliate. ROI5. “It was the top of the line, what we call the second stage, of a Falcon 9 rocket. It actually launched about three weeks ago and it did exactly what it was supposed to do: put satellites in orbit.

“The only failure he had was that he didn’t complete his desorbit combustion, so he didn’t fall when and where we expected. He just waited to fall for the past three weeks and we got lucky and it came right over his head.

This launch from which this debris originated took place on March 4 and sent another batch of SpaceX Starlink satellites into orbit. Fun fact: Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, tweeted a thread about the debris people saw, a thread in which he explained that this reentry of debris actually happens more often than you might think: “This is the 14th piece of space debris with a mass of over ‘a (ton) who has been reinstated since January 1 of this year, ” McDowell wrote.

In the meantime, enjoy some of the reactions to this event:

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Andy is a reporter in Memphis who also contributes to media outlets like Fast Company and The Guardian. When he’s not writing about tech, he’s found leaning protectively over his burgeoning vinyl collection, in addition to honing his Whovianism and gorging himself on a variety of TV shows you probably don’t like. not.



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