Witnesses across California between San Diego and Sacramento, as well as the Las Vegas in Nevada, have reported observing a bright fireball meteor at about 1.40 am local time (8.40 am GMT) on Tuesday 2 April 2024. The fireball is described as having moved from southwest to northeast, over the central part of the state. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. These are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in the atmosphere, but can be the result of man-made space-junk burning up on re-entry, as is believed to have been the case on this occasion.
The fireball is thought to have been caused by a part of a Chinese spacecraft which launched on 29 November 2022 re-entering the atmosphere. The Shenzhou 15 spacecraft caried three taikonauts (the Chinese equivalent of astronauts) to the Tiangong Space Station. The taikonauts returned to Earth on 3 June 2023 aboard the Shenzhou 15 re-entry module, the only portion of the craft designed to re-enter the atmosphere safely. The remaining portion of the spacecraft has been on a decaying orbit since this time, finally re-entering the atmosphere this week.
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