It appears that the shocking video of a flaming object blazing the night sky over a city in Mexico is a Russian rocket falling to Earth.
The video, uploaded to a Reddit forum on Wednesday, shows fiery debris breaking off the unidentified object as it soars out of range, originally believed to be a meteorite. Alongside the 26-second video, Reddit user u /ZabiLarry wrote that a "meteorite" had fallen and lit up his neighborhood. They said that the incident took place in northern Mexico, in the city of Monterrey.
Netizens were confused as to what the object was, but a space expert later revealed that the video was taken in July and showed part of a Russian rocket falling down to Earth shortly after launch. While u/ZabiLarry indicated that it was a meteorite, netizens argued that a man-made object was more likely to be the case.
In response to the post, one Reddit user wrote: "I imagine from the speed and how it's breaking up that this was a man-made object re-entering the atmosphere. Could be wrong though."
Others suspected that discarded space junk from last week's launch of a U.S. rocket was the flaming debris. On a resupply mission to the International Space Station on Oct. 3, a Northrop Cygnus rocket took off from Virginia. Trackers of space debris had suggested that on Wednesday, the craft's jettisoned second stage would return to Earth.
One Reddit user commented it was the second step of the Antares rocket that last Saturday launched the Cygnus cargo resupply vessel to the ISS.
It seems, though, that the video is an old clip reuploaded to Reddit.
After the clip was posted there, Dutch scientist Dr. Marco Langbroek explained the misunderstanding on Twitter. The space expert from Leiden University revealed that the video was originally shot in July 2020 and shows a portion of a Russian rocket flying over Earth.
This video is doing the rounds as being reportedly seen last night.
It however is an old video, from 18 July 2020, showing the reentry of a Russian rocket stage from the launch of Kosmos 2542 over Mexico.
It is NOT footage of the fireball reported from Mexico last night. https://t.co/vSzC8wNGLa — Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek) October 7, 2020
Confusion erupted when the video was released on Wednesday at the same time that a real fireball was spotted over Mexico. But according to Dr. Langbroek, this is not the video of a fireball recorded last night from Mexico.
Rocket pieces occasionally crash down to Earth days or even years after launches. In the atmosphere, others burn up harmlessly, while some make it all the way to the ground.
In September, a Chinese Long March 4B rocket crash landed on a town in the Shaanxi province of the country, narrowly missing a kindergarten.
