Skygazers in the US territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean were treated to some unusual celestial fireworks on Thursday night.
Footage on social media shows the bright, slow-moving object fall before breaking into pieces in a spectacular show.
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Some have suggested that it was a meteor shower, but Guam officials assumed the object was “likely connected to a scheduled satellite test launch from China”.
On Thursday, China launched a new communications satellite for Indonesia, known as the Palapa-N1 or the Nusantara Dua, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest Sichuan province.
Chinese state media reported that unspecified “abnormal conditions” happened within the third stage of the Long March-3B rocket that carried the satellite.
The incident is similar to another sighting over Guam that took place on 27 December 2019, when a fireball streaked across the sky before disappearing mid-air.
The US National Weather Service suggested at the time that it might have either been a meteor or space junk from a Chinese rocket test that took place earlier that day.