Fireball

Fireball as Russian space junk 'belly flops' to Earth above Australia

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN

A fireball the size of a small truck, which shot through the sky over Australia Thursday night, was space junk from Russia's Soyuz rocket, astronomers said.

More accurately, it was "object 40077," the third stage of the Soyuz rocket which was launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday.

It was hurtling around the Earth at some 18,000 mph, or almost 29,000 kilometers per hour.

"What you're seeing in that fireball is it slowing down really fast. It's belly-flopping on the world's atmosphere at 18,000 miles an hour. That really hurts," said Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Residents who saw the fireball initially guessed it was a meteor. Some feared it was a plane crash and called emergency services. 

"Just saw the biggest meteor I've ever seen, going all way across the sky heading North, amazing!" Justin Nicholas tweeted.

Steven Wright saw the fireball Thursday, july 10: I was walking around Docklands taking photos on Thursday night, and while trying to frame a photo of the Melbourne Star, I saw this bright white dot flying across the sky with a massive tail. I had no idea what it was, and at first I thought it was a low flying jet with some wild vapor trails, because it was moving that fast. But because there was no sound, and it didn't make sense to see a vapor tail it behind the plane at night, I knew it had to be something else - I just didn't know what it was. It's actual speed was hard to articulate - it was slow looking, but had to be fast. It must have been pretty far away, as it moved across the sky, and all up, I think I saw it for about 30/45 seconds, and then it just faded away. Fair to say, I was concerned about what it was, and kept an eye on it until I couldn't see it, but all seemed to be okay."

Steve Wright was on the rooftop of a car park trying to take a photo of the Melbourne Star -- the city's giant Ferris wheel -- when he saw the fireball streaking through the sky.

"I had no idea what it was, and at first I thought it was a low flying jet with some wild vapor trails, because it was moving that fast," he told CNN. "But because there was no sound, and it didn't make sense to see a vapor tail it behind the plane at night, I knew it had to be something else."