PEOPLE from Pietermaritzburg to Durban took to social media yesterday after they spotted bright lights rapidly moving through the sky on Saturday night and questioned what the objects were.
Some stated that it was a meteor shower while others said it may be an asteroid, comet or some space debris close to Earth.
One social media user posted a video on Twitter and asked: “Anyone else see the insane meteor shower over Durban? Started filming 5sec in so only caught the tail end. 10+ clear fireballs. Never seen anything like this before. KZN, South Africa. #meteorshower.”
Another user described the lights on Twitter as “Shooting stars like flying objects identified in the sky in Pietermaritzburg.”
Did anyone see this flying over Durban in the sky a few minutes ago. Is it an Asteroid, comet or some space debris close to earth? Wow. Traveling super fast! And huge!
— Marc Forrest (iguy.eth) (@MarcForrest) December 11, 2021
Video by my son. pic.twitter.com/GWdBB8uyi1
Meteor Shower, Drakensberg South Africa 11/12/21 … is this Geminids? #meteor #meteorshower #SouthAfrica #Geminids pic.twitter.com/HHlkiV8OTN
— Jozifire (@Jozifire) December 12, 2021
Meteor shower like I have never before seen.....amazing..video is only half as good as it was in reality.... pic.twitter.com/31F58qtgpe
— Stephen Ireland (@StephenIreland4) December 11, 2021
Speaking to The Mercury today Professor Tim Cooper, who is a meteorite and near space specialist from the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa, said it was not a meteor.
“No it was not a meteor, but re-entry into the atmosphere of spacecraft debris,” said Cooper.
In his explanation posted on social media, Cooper said: Regarding the bright lights seen last night around 8.30pm, this was probably the re-entry of the SL-4 rocket booster (Norad 49923, 2021-119B) from the Roscosmos Soyuz 2.1a rocket which launched the latest cosmonauts to the ISS on December 11. The lights had nothing to do with a comet, asteroid, meteor stream or the Geminids as posted variously elsewhere.”
THE MERCURY