Unidentified flying object leaves residents with many questions
Next time you see something unidentifiable in the sky and wonder: 'Is it a bird? Is it a plane?', take a picture and send it to northside@caxton.co.za..
Residents in Weltevreden Park who looked at the night sky on Sunday, June 5 saw a big, bright object flashing through the sky.
“We were wondering, was it a plane?” said Sindy Dawkins. Her husband Trevor was enjoying the view from their balcony at around 23:00 on Sunday when he saw what at first looked like a shooting star, but then it became apparent that the object was way too big to be a shooting star.
“I called my wife to come and look at what I thought was a plane on fire,” explained Trevor. They have seen many planes flying above them, and it was a terrifying thought that this unknown object might be a plane in distress.
“We could clearly see the object moving towards Clearwater Mall, breaking into little pieces near Life Flora Hospital,” said Trevor. Afterwards they read many conspiracy theories on social media.
The Northsider reached out to Kenny Neville from the West Rand Astronomy Club to find out if he knew anything about the object. “It was definitely not a meteor,” Neville said, and explained that it was a piece of space junk that reentered the atmosphere.
The object was identified as the Russian SL-4 rocket upper stage used for the Progress MS-20 ISS resupply mission, according to Professor Andrew Chen of the University of the Witwatersrand. He said the public should not be worried about small objects like this one, as larger satellites de-orbiting usually have a controlled path set out to ensure that they land in the ocean. Chen also said because of earth’s land to water ratio, it is highly unlikely to find objects like this on land.
Next time you see something unidentifiable in the sky and wonder: ‘Is it a bird? Is it a plane?’, take a picture and send it to northside@caxton.co.za.
