People across the southeast of the United States reported seeing objects burn across the night sky on Saturday night, posting videos to social media.
While some posters thought they were witnessing a meteor shower, Jonathan McDowell, and astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks spacecraft, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that it was Chinese commercial imaging satellite GaoJing 1-02, reentering the atmosphere.
Social media filled with posts showing the burning objects in the sky, from Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, with users unsure what they were witnessing.
As humans launch more satellites into space, re-entries are becoming more commonly observed. Just in November, observers saw a SpaceX satellite make a fiery return to Earth over Colorado, Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma.
The event happened just after 10 p.m. and was visible from multiple states, according to witnesses who shared footage on social media.
McDowell confirmed on X that it was a satellite operated by Beijing-based Space View.
"The commercial imaging satellite 高景一号02星 (GaoJing 1-02, Superview 1-02), operated by Beijing-based SpaceView, re-entered above New Orleans at 10:08 p.m. CST heading northbound toward Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and was widely observed," he wrote.
McDowell continued, "the satellite has been space junk and dead as a doornail since January 2023. This was an uncontrolled reentry. We knew it was coming down today but only with +2-hour accuracy estimate so we didn't know where."
Scientists have raised concerns about the environmental impact of more frequent satellite re-entries.
When these satellites burn up in Earth's atmosphere, they release aluminum oxide, which could potentially damage the ozone layer and affect the atmosphere's ability to reflect sunlight.
"Spacecraft re-entries are changing the upper atmosphere," Aaron Boley, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of British Columbia, Canada, previously told Newsweek.
"This presents a challenge that must be addressed as humanity continues to access, explore and use space."
Several people posted video footage of the satellite, believing it to be a meteor or a meteor shower.
Zack Fradella, a meteorologist for Fox 8 New Orleans posted a video of the fiery display over south Louisiana to X, initially identifying it as a meteor before clarifying that it was a satellite.
Another user @JamesJoiner_WX posted footage of the fiery object to X from Camden, Missouri, saying it was a meteor.
Another user @ElijahKellick posted a video from north Alabama to X, asking "anyone know what this is?"
The re-entry of the Chinese satellite over the U.S. is a reminder of China's recent growth into a global power in space, a development tracked in a recent Newsweek investigation.