IAU General Assembly 2024 - Cape Town
  • Home
  • About the IAU GA 2024
    • Vision 2024
    • Why Should I Attend?
      • We Invite You
      • Accessibility
      • Impact
      • Sustainability
    • Organising Team
    • Supporting organisations
    • IAU Code of Conduct
    • Resources
    • Latest News
  • Registration
    • Register
    • Join us virtually
    • Registration Instructions
    • Donate a Registration
    • Participants list
    • Payment Options
  • Programme
    • Programme Overview
    • Detailed Programme
    • Presenter Instructions
    • Poster Schedule
    • Invited Discourses
  • Posters
  • Oral presentations
  • Session Recordings
    • Day 1 – August 6
    • Day 2 – August 7
    • Day 3 – August 8
    • Day 4 – August 9
    • Day 5 – August 12
    • Day 6 – August 13
    • Day 7 – August 14
    • Day 8 – August 15
  • Conference Proceedings
  • Hybrid E-Posters Setup
  • Daily Newspaper
  • Events/Outreach/Education
    • Events for Participants
    • Events for Public & Schools
    • Radio Astro
  • Scientific Side Events
  • Social Events
  • Exhibitors & Sponsors
    • Our Sponsors and Exhibitors
    • Sponsorships
    • Exhibitions
    • Payment Options
  • Travel Information
    • Destination Cape Town
    • Cape Town Food Guide
    • Safety
    • Childcare
    • Technical Tours
    • Visa Invitation Letter/ E-Visa
    • Travel, Hotel, Tours (via Travel Partner)
    • Getting to Cape Town
    • Accommodation in Cape Town
    • Venue
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • Volunteer
  • FAQ
  • Menu Menu
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn

Large fireball illuminates Southern African skies

August 25, 2021/in Africa, Astronomical events, News/by wpadmin

On the evening of August 24, a bright object traveling fast in the upper atmosphere had thousands of people mesmerised. It was spotted by many in the Gauteng province of South Africa but was visible further North into Limpopo and Zimbabwe. At first we didn’t know what it was.

☄️BREAKING: SA Astronomical Observatory confirms large #meteor/fireball (📸 below) @ 18:21 on Tuesday

📍VISIBILITY: GP, LP, NW, MP,🇧🇼&🇿🇼

🪨COMPOSITION: 1-10 metre rocks of around 1,648°C, which explode on entry into atmosphere

💡DYK
Meteor: Disintegrates
Meteorite: Hits ground pic.twitter.com/pRgww9tJfX

— Gauteng Weather (@tWeatherSA) August 25, 2021

A usual shooting star is a rock the size of a grain of sand, so this looked a lot larger and it could be seen breaking up in the atmosphere. We’re lucky it happened after sunset, otherwise it would not be visible.

It could also have been something made by humans. Indeed, space is full of the debris of our interplanetary dreams. In 2001, the Russian Space Station Mir ended its faithful service to humanity in a stunning fireball above the Pacific Ocean.

Rockets reach space in stages. Until Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 landed back on Earth, rockets used to be discarded in space after one launch, and only capsules used to come back to Earth. One such capsule can be seen at the Cape Town Science Centre in South Africa. This is one of the reasons space travel was so expensive. OK it still is – but less so, and space has even become the next frontier in terms of tourism for the very wealthy.

Falcon 9 rockets landing back on Earth in 2018 after the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. Credit: cnet

This single-use approach to space travel also created a lot of large debris. This debris eventually falls back onto Earth. When large human-made objects orbit the planet they are often monitored, as they could present a hazard for satellites, aircraft, or us on the ground.

Thanks to this, astronomer and space geek Jonathan McDowell as well as twitter user @Skitt0608 were able to identify last night’s object as Chinese rocket Yuanzheng-1S, meant to demonstrate satellite internet provision capabilities.

OK if I assume that the YZ-1S stage made a deorbit burn at about 1230 UTC to an orbit around 100 x 1100 km but it failed to reenter at first or second perigee, surviving to the third perigee, I get a good match with the time and location of the observations pic.twitter.com/YkkHZHdC1s

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) August 24, 2021

So there you have it: it was a piece of rocket, re-entering the atmosphere and burning up due to friction with air molecules. As more of our space junk falls back to Earth we may see more of these human-made shooting stars.

If you want to work in space, here’s what to do: take mathematics and science at school, enroll in a physics degree, or an engineering degree, and dream big! Who knows where this could take you?

https://astronomy2024.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/E9myo00XoAQyEhA.jpeg 709 945 wpadmin https://astronomy2024.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IAU-logo-date-transparent.png wpadmin2021-08-25 11:29:422021-08-25 13:04:24Large fireball illuminates Southern African skies

Newsletter

© 2024 IAU General Assembly 2024 – Cape Town

First PhD Astrophysicist in Côte d’IvoireInterview about AfAS in Scientia Magazine
Scroll to top