Dramatic moment fireballs are seen flying across the sky as ‘Chinese satellites enter atmosphere over Arkansas’

This is the astonishing moment shooting fireballs lit up the night sky as a Chinese satellite burned up and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.

The fireballs, which scientists have identified as Beijing’s SuperView-1 02, were spotted crossing the skies over Bryant, Arkansas, around 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Thousands of residents in the southeastern US saw a beam of orange light travel over their homes as the satellite broke apart and began its tumultuous return to Earth.

Many locals, including Reagan Jones, who posted a video of the explosion on social media, thought they had witnessed a meteor shower, but scientists say that is not the case.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks spacecraft, attached to X that the phenomenon was the ‘uncontrolled reentry’ of the commercial imaging satellite into the atmosphere.

McDowell said the SuperView-1 02 was “space junk” and “dead as a doornail since January 2023.”

He noted that officials knew the satellite would crash on Sunday. They only had an “accuracy estimate of +2 hours,” so they weren’t sure when or where this would happen.

The American Meteor Society received at least 120 reports of sightings in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri after the satellite exploded.

Thousands of residents in the southeastern US saw a beam of orange light travel over their homes as the satellite broke apart and began its tumultuous return to Earth. Many locals thought they had witnessed a meteor shower, but scientists say that is not the case

The phenomenon was actually the “uncontrolled reentry” into the atmosphere of the Chinese SuperView-1 02 satellite (shown in the file photo). The satellite was originally launched from Taiyuan, China in 2016

McDowell claims the satellite re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over New Orleans, Louisiana at 10:08 PM local time.

The satellite headed north toward Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and was “widely observed” by residents in the southeastern US.

‘The satellite has been space junk and dead as a doornail since January 2023. This was an uncontrolled return. We knew it would happen today, but only with an accuracy estimate of +2 hours, so we didn’t know where,” he tweeted.

According to McDowell, the SuperView-1 02 weighs about half a ton, making it small enough to “burn almost completely.” He said it would be “interesting” to see if any debris is found.

“Maybe part of the propulsion system survived the re-entry because it tends to be dense,” he suggested.

McDowell’s claim that the light show seen over Bryant was actually the crashing satellite was echoed by meteorologist Nathan Scott, who works at a CBS affiliate in nearby Little Rock.

‘The beautiful display of fireballs over AR last night around 10pm were NOT meteors. It’s a satellite known as Superview that burned up during its expected return.” Scott tweeted.

He also claimed that the beams of light were “moving too slowly” to be meteors, claiming that “meteors last only a few seconds.”

SuperView-1 02 re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over New Orleans, Louisiana at 10:08 PM local time, scientists claim. The satellite headed north toward Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and was “widely observed” by residents in the southeastern US.

The American Meteor Society received at least 120 reports of sightings in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri after the satellite burst

The SuperView-1 02 was originally launched from Taiyuan, China in 2016, NASA records reveal, and was managed by the Siwei Star Co. Ltd., Beijing.

It consisted of four satellites, all orbiting in the same plane and at an altitude of 500 km.

The SuperView-1 02 was disabled almost two years ago and has been on its way to Earth ever since.