NASA satellite, cosmic body, something else? The flash in the Kyiv sky causes confusion and annoyance

The US space agency denied involvement in what happened. But what really happened?

A flash in the sky over the Ukrainian capital caused confusion and alarm Wednesday night, as Ukrainian authorities assumed it was a NASA satellite, according to Reuters.

Sirens sounded after many residents of the Ukrainian capital noticed a strong flash in the sky and the military department in Kiev stated that according to preliminary information, it was a re-entry into the atmosphere of a NASA satellite.

But the US space agency denied involvement. Speaking to AFP, a NASA spokesperson said the satellite in question was “still in orbit,” despite announcing earlier this week that the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager spacecraft was due to reenter the atmosphere on Wednesday. .

“However, this re-entry has not yet occurred… No other NASA satellites entered the atmosphere earlier today,” the spokesperson said.

Once again: the bright flash seen over Kiev had nothing to do with the re-entry of NASA’s RHESSI satellite, whose orbit is not located thousands of kilometers from Ukraine.

– Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 19, 2023

Shortly thereafter, the Ukrainian Air Force stated that the flash was “related to a satellite/meteor fall”. Information that was clarified, already on Thursday, by the Ukrainian Space Agency, which came to say, after all, that the “brightness” in the sky of Kiev could be caused by a “cosmic body” (meteor).

“The main special control center of the DKA reported that on April 19, 2023 at 21:57 Kiev time [menos duas horas em Portugal Continental], a high-energy acoustic event was recorded on the territory of Ukraine by ultrasound of the State Technical Committee of Ukraine. Estimated location of the epicenter of the explosion in the Kiev region. It is likely that the event is associated with the entry of a cosmic body into the dense layers of the atmosphere. information has been clarified, Read the statement.

There was a strange flash over the Kiev sky tonight, and then the air raid alarm went off. And the Kiev military department says that, according to preliminary information, a NASA satellite fell to Earth. An alert was on to keep people safe from being cut off. NASA announced… pic.twitter.com/xhmFbUUT44

– Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) April 19, 2023

Although the NASA satellite was not associated with the Kiev flare, it is expected that it will soon enter the atmosphere and that “some of its components will survive re-entry.” However, the space agency warns that the risk of harming anyone on Earth is low – about one in 2,467.