Last night's space debris or meteor

[ChrisnChris]

Did anyone else see the burn up in the atmosphere last night at a minute or so past midnight. It was quite a sight, very bright with accompanying, almost smoke like trail.
It was travelling sort of S. to N.E.
We were outside enjoying a glass of wine, peering up at the sky, as you do, saw a couple of "ordinary" shooting stars as well.

[Eric Mc]

Not me - although I've seen plenty of such events over the years.

Meteors tend to move a lot quicker than re-entering spacecraft. A typical meteor enters the atmosphere at speeds between 60,000 and 100,000 mph. A spacecraft will be entering from earth orbit - so burn up at around 17,500 mph.

[Moonhawk]

Perseid activity starts to ramp up between now and ~12/13th Aug. You could have seen an early one. They can often be bright and leave trails.

Of course it could have also just been a bright sporadic.

[ChrisnChris]

It could have been anything I suppose but it did, to my very untrained eye, seem to be in our atmosphere as opposed to "out in space"
It just seemed to be a lot closer than a normal shooting star sighting.

[Eric Mc]

I know it's hard to judge, but could you indicate how fast it was moving?

If it literally flashed across the sky and was gone in a couple of seconds, that would indicate it was a meteor. If it took a longer time to cross the sky and appeared to be moving at an apparent speed similar to a high flying jet, then that would indicate a spacecraft or space junk.

If you have ever seen the International Space Station pass overhead, that is the type of speed a re-entering spacecraft moves at i.e. a lot slower than a meteor.

[ChrisnChris]

It was 1-1.5 seconds, as a guess, bright flash, slightly orange with the trail cloud clearly visible as a "cloud" around the trail as opposed to just a trail if that makes sense
Of course, that was only visible for the duration of the flash.

[Eric Mc]

Sounds like a meteor to me. The cloud you witnessed was probably the ionisation trail. A meteor often leaves a glowing trail of ionised gas behind it which will glow for a few seconds after the meteor itself has burned out.

[Narcisus]

I'm with Eric. I've seen space junk burning up and I'll never forget it. Incredible sight.

[Eric Mc]

Here's some video of a satellite or rocket stage re-entering the atmosphere over Dubai. It is quite different to a normal meteor -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW98iagTwMI

[Einion Yrth]

Eric Mc said:

Here's some video of a satellite or rocket stage re-entering the atmosphere over Dubai. It is quite different to a normal meteor -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW98iagTwMI

youtube said:

"Russian spaceship burns up..." The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement.

[Eric Mc]

Have another one then -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhBw5yaR_SU