* Astronomy

The bright light seen in the sky over Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, on Wednesday night may have been space junk.

Susan Martin from Esk Valley was at Aropaoanui when she saw what looked like a distress flare between 6.30 and 6.45pm. A woman from her work told her she had heard on the radio that NASA had brought down some space junk over the Pacific Ocean.

Napier woman Joan Vyle was out running about 6.35pm near the Port of Napier when she saw the flare of light. Having seen quite a few meteorites streak across the sky she did not think it was one of those.

"It looked like it came down on the (Napier) hill but it must have been further out.
It was unreal."

Another Napier woman, Kim Willoughby, said she saw a weird flash of orange in the sky about 6.15pm and the family had a discussion about what it might have been.
"I've never seen anything like it before, it was quite big and really bright."

Hawke's Bay Holt Planetarium director Gary Sparks had not seen any confirmation that man-made rubbish falling to earth was the cause of the light but it made sense, he said.

"If they were de-orbiting something it wouldn't usually be anywhere near land ... but it would be a logical explanation."

Source


The cargo spacecraft Progress M-53 was deorbited and disposed of at 14:13 GMT. (2:13 am New Zealand time)
Fragments of the spacecraft that did not burn upon re-entry plunged into the Pacific near Nativity Island.