With an out of control rocket falling erratically back toward earth and likely to hit somewhere—but where?!?—I thought this guide to classifying shooting stars and re-entry breakups was pertinent!
(Aerospace)
Witnessing the reentry of a human-made space object is a breathtaking –and rare– experience. But how can you tell if what you saw was a meteor or the reentry of a human-made object? The similarities between meteors and human-made reentries can be significant and often lead to confusion. Many Aerospace experts at The Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS) have been asked how one might distinguish natural meteors from human-made object reentries.
Space debris is human-made and comes from objects that people launched into Earth orbit. It is usually moving parallel to the ground, at a speed of about 7 km/sec or 17,500 miles per hour. The reentry can occur at any time of the day. These reentries can often look like shooting stars (meteors) with a bright central body followed by a long, dazzling tail and often break into numerous fragments.
Read the rest from Aerospace : DID I SEE A METEOR OR A REENTRY?
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