A defunct earth-imaging satellite made in China turned into a bright fireball Saturday night as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere -- and some of the remains may have made it to the ground in Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas or surrounding states.
The spectacle was widely mistaken for a meteor, but scientists confirm it was actually GaoJing 1-02 (Superview 1-02), one of a constellation of four satellites launched from China to low-earth orbit in 2016.
Astronomer and leading orbit watcher Jonathan McDowell says the spacecraft began its tumultuous return to earth above New Orleans and likely disintegrated as it continued north.
NASA scientist Marc Fries, who works to locate meteorite falls using public data, noted that at least four weather radars picked up falling debris as the fireball traveled directly over Jackson, Mississippi and on towards Arkansas and Missouri.
The debris field for an object entering our atmosphere from space can be very long and wide because it is traveling at several thousand miles per hour. The friction generated by the impact and drag from our comparatively dense atmosphere creates intense heat that burns up the satellite.
McDowell noted that GaoJing 1-02 is relatively small for a satellite, so it's possible it burned up entirely in the air without anything reaching the ground. So far there have been no reports of fragments being recovered, but they could be quite small and difficult to identify as part of a satellite.
The American Meteor Society has received at least 120 reports of the fireball created by the incinerating satellite.
GaoJing 1-02 switched off almost two years ago, according to McDowell. Around that time it began a precipitous downward drift towards its ultimate demise, the atmosphere and perhaps even the surface.
Re-entries of satellites, especially smaller spacecraft that spend all their time in space in low-earth orbit, is very common today. I'm not aware of any incidences of damage from objects like this making it all the way to the ground.
The same can't be said for larger, heavier objects like big spent rocket bodies. Still, damage is pretty rare even in these cases, as most space debris tends to fall in the ocean.