Japanese authorities said Thursday that streaks of fire seen at night in the sky of southern Japan may have been caused by debris from a Chinese missile.
And it appears in a video recording that has been circulating on social media since Wednesday evening, what looks like fireballs, whose nature raises questions from residents and Internet users.
An official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the branch of the Japanese National Astronomical Observatory in Ishigaki in the Okinawa archipelago detected streaks of light at 16:33 (11:33 GMT) on Wednesday.
He added, “Based on the available information, we believe that (these) objects are not fireballs from meteorites, but rather debris from a missile,” noting that “the slow transmission of this light (…) is similar to the debris of a missile entering the atmosphere.”
“It could be the debris of a missile launched by China in November,” he added.
He cited “information that part of the rocket will re-enter the atmosphere” around the same time, explaining that the debris most likely fell into the ocean and posed no danger based on projections of the trajectory it could have taken.
