A strong flash drew attention in the sky of some states of Brazil on Wednesday night (14). The first suspicion was a meteor. However, the Brazilian Meteor Monitoring Network (Bramon) reported that the object is possibly the body of a Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex, a company by billionaire Elon Musk.
The 40108 Number Code-identified rocket was launched over a decade ago, more precisely on August 5, 2014. It was part of the mission that placed Asiasat 8 orbit, a geostationary communications satellite made to provide transmission services to the Asia-Pacific region.
After the mission, the second stage of Falcon 9 was in orbit as space waste for almost 11 years. Over time, the fall trajectory resulted in the atmospheric reentry and appearance on Wednesday (14).
According to Bramon, the object was first noticed in Brasilia at 6:24 pm and took only four minutes to disappear in the Bahia sky at 6:28 pm. During the time interval, he traveled about 1,500 km, which corresponds to a speed between 6 and 7 km/s. In addition to the two states, the phenomenon was seen in cities of Mato Grosso, Goiás and Minas Gerais.
In videos obtained by CNN, which were published on the networks, you can see the moment when the bright object, similar to a meteor crosses the Brazilian sky. See videos below:
Spatial garbage
According to astronomer Ricardo Ogando, from the National Observatory, the object seen in the sky was a possible reentry of space waste, as stages of a rocket, and these objects do not usually offer danger.
According to the National Institute for Space Research, Inpe, space waste are objects created by humans, which are in orbit around the earth, but no longer perform any useful function, such as small pieces of rockets, waste, etc.
In this way, objects end up returning in the atmosphere, causing the flash in the heavens.
However, recent studies on the subject confirm that Space waste is one of the factors that aggravate the climate crisis . The problem is that these debris affect the climate of the planet and act as a source of pollution in the atmosphere.
In addition to spatial waste, such as out -of -use satellites and atmosphere rocket remains, science indicates that increased spatial launches also contributes to the growth of pollutants in the upper layers of the earth’s atmosphere.
In recent years, the number of space launches has grown significantly, driven by sending satellites and manned commercial missions.
Some of the effects of pollutants generated by space waste and rocket launches include:
- In the return to the atmosphere, satellites release aluminum oxides, compounds that can change the temperatures of the planet;
- Both pollution sources contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer;
- Scientists believe that 100,000 satellites will be around Earth until the end of the decade;
- Amount of spatial waste burned in the atmosphere should reach more than 3,300 tons per year
This content was originally published in fireball seen in the Brazilian sky can be Space X rocket on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
