A BRIGHT FLASH lit up Kyiv’s sky last night which the Ukrainian Space Agency say was “probably related” to the entry of meteorite into Earth’s atmosphere.
Air sirens did initially sound in the city, as officials thought a NASA satellite or a incoming missile was heading towards the city, however the space agency denied that the bright flash was a satellite of theirs.
“What exactly it was — only experts can find out,” the military administration’s chief Sergiy Popko said this morning.
“It was not a missile attack. Our anti-aircraft defence did not deploy its available weapons,” Popko added.
He referred to Wednesday’s incident as “the fall of an unknown aerial object” and said its glow had “caused excitement and concern among the people of Kyiv”.
The Ukrainian space agency said that a “cosmic body” entered “the dense layers of the atmosphere” which caused a high-energy acoustic event.
The information is currently being “clarified” the agency said last night.
The head of the city’s military administration had said that the flash was caused by a NASA satellite returning to Earth.
But a NASA spokesman told AFP that this was not the case as the satellite in question was “still in orbit”.
Igor Korniyenko, the deputy head of a control centre at Ukraine’s national space agency, said “We cannot identify what it was exactly, but our assumption is that it was a meteorite.”
Footage of the flash appeared on social media last night, which appears to show a large flash, with a streak of light after it around 10pm local time (8pm Irish time).
Can’t catch a break... First air raid alert in Kyiv in several days went off tonight. The reason? According to authorities, NASA satellite debris fell to earth, passing through the airspace of Ukraine’s capital around 10pm and illuminating the sky. pic.twitter.com/vSlmCoUY5W
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April 19, 2023
The city administration also confirmed this morning that the flash was not a falling satellite or a Russian missile attack.
Additional Reporting from © AFP 2023
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