An alleged meteor or comet, as some local residents suggest, brightened the sky between 6 and 7 a. m. (9-10 p.m. GMT, January 17) in the Amur Region.
“It looked like a plane’s trail but way bigger and brighter,” a witness claimed.
After streaking through the sky, the object exploded, disintegrating into a number of pieces with a dazzling flash.
“At 6:40 [9:40 p. m. GMT, January 17] the object exploded, but the sound came in after eight minutes. It was quite loud”, a resident said.
Officials have not provided any comment on the event.
The fireball caused a firestorm on Russian social media, with some claiming it to be a crashed celestial body and others saying it was a rocket. Some joked it was a “brother of the Chelyabinsk meteorite”.
"Метеоритом" над Дальним Востоком могла быть вторая ступень ракеты "Falcon 9"! #метеорит #falcon9 pic.twitter.com/9TbV0TmN7U
— Astro Channel (@AstroChannel1) 18 января 2015
On February 15, 2013, a 10,000-ton meteorite hit the Earth near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Its explosion inflicted damage on the infrastructure and injured 1,500 people with glass shattered by the shockwave.
