Residents of Puerto Rico were stunned to witness a bizarre phenomenon in the skies just off the island, as an unusual array of lights inexplicably appeared in the distance for some time before completely disappearing.
At approximately 6:30am local time Tuesday, eyewitnesses began seeing strange light formations in the sky, many of whom took out their camera phones to document what they were seeing.
While some were quick to call it “the end of days,” thankfully the Caribbean Astronomical Society (SAC) was on hand to allay the public’s fears of doomsday, an alien invasion or indeed some Elon Musk-related celestial light displays.
Eddie Irizarry, Vice President of SAC, explained that the phenomenon was merely the fuselage of a CZ-3B Chinese rocket re-entering the atmosphere after some three years, having delivered a TJS-2 satellite into orbit.
Another characteristic of space junk is its particular disintegration, in which, apart from various parts flying off the sides, you can also see that some fall slower than others,” Irizarry said, adding that typically space junk re-entry takes a lot longer to fade than meteorites do.
Furthermore, residents could be forgiven for their confusion given that on January 17 at roughly 5:30am local time another fireball was seen tearing across the sky, which was eventually confirmed by the SAC as a meteorite.