▶ Watch footage of the mysterious flash of light captured by the residents:
The bright glow was seen over the Ukrainian capital around 10pm local time (9pm Belgian time) yesterday. Activate the air raid siren.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, it was clearly not a Russian airstrike. “According to preliminary information, this phenomenon was the result of a NASA satellite falling to Earth,” said Sergey Popko, head of the military department in Kiev. Air raid sirens have been activated to prevent debris from falling.
Popko was referring to the RHESSI satellite, which should normally re-enter the atmosphere last night. RHESSI was launched in February 2002 to monitor solar flares. The mission ended in October 2018.
However, NASA denied that the satellite caused the flash of light. According to the US space agency, the satellite was still “orbiting the Earth” when the flash was observed, and will enter Earth’s atmosphere during the night.
There is a lot of speculation on social media in Ukraine about the cause of the mysterious flash. Many theories and memes are doing the rounds, but the real cause remains a guess for the time being.
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