Possible meteor shower or rocket re-entry light up skies of Maharashtra, MP

Nagpur (Maharashtra), April 3: A dazzling streak of light ripping through the night sky was witnessed in several regions of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The unusual event, which was captured by people on their phones and shared on social media, has been astounding netizens. Where many people described the sighting as a "meteor shower," astronomer Jonathan McDowell speculated that the celestial event seen over Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh was actually the "re-entry of a Chinese rocket stage" that was launched in February 2021. Suresh Chopade, president of the Skywatch group in Nagpur, stated that several people in Maharashtra witnessed a rare event in the evening and shared videos and photos of it. Chopade said he has been observing space-related events for the previous 25 years and that the incident appeared to be linked to a satellite. "It seems like a satellite of some nation might have fallen accidentally or may have been caused to fall intentionally. It does not seem like a meteor shower or fireball," he continued. He further said that it could be parts of a meteorite but the colours indicated that "a metallic thing" has accompanied it while coming towards earth. Meanwhile, Jonathan McDowell, who is an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics and comments on space launches, referred to the event in a tweet and said, "I believe this is the reentry of a Chinese rocket stage, the third stage of the Chang Zheng 3B serial number Y77 which was launched in Feb 2021 - it was expected to reenter in the next hour or so and the track is a good match." Shashank Gattewar, a resident of Manish Nagar in Nagpur, shot the scene with his mobile. He said that he saw some light in the sky, "where one after the other several spheres" were coming in the direction of the earth from the sky. Another person said that they saw the blaze for two minutes and later the light disappeared adding, "We saw these balls going towards Aurangabad." Also Read | Fuel price hike: Diesel, petrol prices up by 80 paise per litre; 11th hike in 13 days Pramod Hile, the Tehsildar of Yeola said an "ulkapat" (meteorite) was visible in the sky at around 8 pm. "I saw it myself. It was split into four parts. No damage has been caused and there is nothing to fear," he added. Many people posted the visuals of the meteor shower on Twitter. Sharing a video of the event, one person said, "#Comet shower seen in the western region of India. This was drop-dead gorgeous. @NASA @isro @neiltyson #Nagpur #Amravati #Dhule #Akola." Another person tweeted, "#meteor #meteorshower 7:46 PM 2 April 2022 Above Nagpur, Maharashtra." A third person wrote, "Something unusual spotted this evening at Kalmeshwar, Nagpur Does anyone have an idea? #ISRO #NASA #InternationalSpaceStation #Nagpur #India #universe #IPL @MayurGarode @isro." Also Read | Sri Lanka imposes nationwide social media blackout ahead of protest -PTC News