Old International Space Station antenna draws fire streaks in the sky over Sacramento

On Friday night, residents of Sacramento, California, could see bright streaks of fire in the sky. Naturally, the phenomenon attracted the attention of conspiracy theorists, but very quickly an American scientist brought everyone back to reality.

Here's What We Know

The cause of the fiery streaks in the sky above California's capital was not aliens. The streaks appeared as a result of the end of the lifecycle of space debris. Specifically, the ICS-EF antenna module that was once installed on the International Space Station (ISS).

This was reported by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. According to the scientist, the ICS-EF communication module burned up in our planet's atmosphere.

The 310-kg antenna was used to provide communication between the Tsukuba Space Center and the Kibo module. ICS-EF was sent to the ISS in 2009 and 11 years later it was jettisoned into a decaying orbit.

Scientists believe that fire blazes will become more frequent. This is due to an increase in space debris. In particular, the US Department of Defence and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are tracking some 27,000 pieces of debris and aerospace companies continue to send more satellites into orbit. SpaceX, for example, has deployed around 4,000 Starlinks, and Amazon will soon join it. The company has received permission to launch more than 3,000 Kuiper project satellites.

The likelihood of one of the space debris fragments falling to Earth is still low. There is, however, a risk that the debris would threaten active space objects. For example, the same ISS, which was forced to dodge a satellite a few days ago.

Source: space