Mystery as Enormous Bright Light Dazzles Cameras in Ukraine

Matt Growcoot

Ukraine Light

Multiple cameras picked up a massive flash of light over Ukraine last night with no clear explanation as to what it was.

The dazzling glow appeared over Kyiv at 22:00 activating air raid sirens despite there being no “air defense in operation,” according to the head of the city’s military administration Sergiy Popko.

The Ukrainian air force says that the flash came from either a satellite or meteorite — something NASA quickly rebutted.

The space agency had announced earlier in the week that a retired 600-pound satellite would reenter Earth’s atmosphere but scientists confirmed that the spacecraft was still in orbit at the time of the flash over Kyiv.

“However, that reentry has not yet occurred … No other Nasa satellite reentered the atmosphere earlier today,” a NASA spokesperson told AFP.

There was rife speculation as to what the brilliant light was — many immediately believed it was an alien spacecraft.

“While social media is amused by flying saucer memes, please do not use the official symbol of the air force to create memes!” reads a tweet by the Ukrainian air force tweet.

What was the Light?

Sam Rolfe, an astronomer from the University of Hertfordshire tells Insider that the light appeared to be a meteorite.

“It looks pretty much a very standard fireball, a piece of space rock larger than a typical meteor or a shooting star,” says Rolfe.

Despite looking spectacular, these types of fireballs are fairly standard and can just be the size of a football.

“For persons to witness something like that is probably quite rare, but in terms of how often it happens around the globe there’s probably at least one every day, if not multiple. But a lot of them will happen over the open ocean,” adds Rolfe.

This article will be updated when PetaPixel receives confirmation of the source of the light.

Image credits: Feature photo courtesy of Olexander Scherba.

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