The strange object that illuminated the sky last night Puerto Rico and that captured the attention of many citizens was the fuselage of a Chinese CZ-4B rocketconfirmed this Friday the Caribbean Astronomy Society (SAC).
In a press release, the non-profit organization revealed the mystery behind the unusual object that disintegrated over the island’s sky around 11:24 pm, in an event that went viral on social networks.
By offering more details, the SAC indicated that the atypical event caused “the impressive sighting of a slow object fragmenting in a large part of the sky, and which was visible from all of Puerto Rico”.
Precisely, Eddie Irizarryscientific disseminator of the SAC, indicated that “It was a rocket 145 feet high and 11 feet in diameter.” “which was losing altitude as it orbited the Earth, after taking the Yaogan-43 satellites into space on August 16 of this year.”
Irizarry added that the CZ-4B had been launched from the Xichang Space Center in China. “Yes, it was space junk, but what happens is that the term space junk covers this type of objects and other things, such as useless satellites,” he explained to The New Day.
Along these lines, he said that “these fuselages remain orbiting the Earth for several months and, in this case, it was for four months. At the same time, it reached a height of approximately 70 miles above the Caribbean area, as it began to experience friction with the atmosphere.”
The scientific communicator mentioned that it is likely that the rocket was seen in Cuba, while there are reports that it was sighted from the Dominican Republic. “It passed right over Puerto Rico, moving from northwest to southeast,” he added.
“What we were seeing was the disintegration of this rocket through the atmosphere and because it was disintegrating, it was amazing that we could see some parts or pieces, which were seen a little to the sides and some staying further behind, which are characteristic of when we observe space debris entering our atmosphere,” he added.
According to National Geographic, “space debris consists of any man-made object that is sent into space and that no longer has any use, that is, it is no longer operational. This concept includes debris from space missions, rocket parts, and virtually any component that is not part of the delivered payload.”
As a large part of the Planet is covered by water, in case a fragment has fallen on the surface, he explained that it is very likely that it would fall on the eastern Antilles, in the waters of the Atlantic, further east of Barbados. However, at the moment, there are no reports.
At least, the SAC has documented at least five sightings of space debris over Puerto Rico, one of the most recent being SpaceX’s Starlink satellite, reported in September 2023.