On Tuesday, April 2, around 2 a.m., the California sky was crossed by a trail of fire that looked like a meteorite. A picture worthy of a disaster film which has not gone unnoticed. The American Meteor Society has recorded 85 accounts of this spectacle between the cities of Sacramento and San Diego. This has led to a number of assumptions about the nature of this phenomenon.
According to some experts, such as Jonathan Christopher McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, this trail could be a piece of the orbital module of the Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou 15 which entered the atmosphere.
This type of event is common and poses no risk to populations, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, it offers an impressive spectacle, especially when it occurs in the middle of the night.
It is possible to differentiate meteorites from space debris, which move at a constant speed and trajectory. Meteorites form luminous trails that burn quickly in the atmosphere.