Blinding flash over Kyiv was probably meteorite, says Ukraine space agency

A mysterious flash of light over the Ukrainian capital sparked much speculation on Wednesday night.

Officials in Kiev initially suspected a NASA satellite had fallen to Earth, but the US space agency told the BBC that it was still in orbit.

A Ukrainian space official later said the flash was probably caused by a meteorite entering the atmosphere.

The Air Force was certain that it was not a Russian air raid.

Around 22:00 (19:00 GMT), a bright glow was observed over the capital.

An air raid warning was activated, but “the air defenses were not working,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kiev’s military government, told Telegram.

M Popko suggests a NASA spacecraft crashing to Earth was to blame, citing a retired 300kg (660lb) spacecraft that the space agency said was due to re-enter the atmosphere on Wednesday. Did.

The RHESSI satellite, which is used to observe solar flares, was launched into low-Earth orbit in 2002 and retired in 2018, according to NASA.

But Rob Marghetta of NASA’s communications department told the BBC that the satellite was still in orbit when the flash was observed and was due to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere during the night.

Satellite tracking website Satflare showed that RHESSI was not near Ukraine at the time.

Ukrainian social media is flooded with theories and memes about what the Flash was, and a popular theme is that it was caused by aliens.

But Air Force spokesman Yuri Inat told a Ukrainian television station that the flash was also seen in neighboring Belarus to the north, and the Ukrainian space agency said it was likely related to an object entering a dense layer of the atmosphere. said that he is

Kiev officials said it was up to experts to establish what it was, but what was most important was the safety of the city.