Clear skies. Low 57F. W winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..
Clear skies. Low 57F. W winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.
A screen grab from a high-resolution video shows a Russian fuel tank exploding over Montana.
A screen grab from a high-resolution video shows a Russian fuel tank exploding over Montana.
People gawking at the sky late Tuesday were entertained by what is believed to be a piece from an old Russian rocket reentering the atmosphere.
Social media lit up after 10 p.m. with people asking if it was a meteor, space junk or some other phenomena from infinity and beyond coursing across the Montana skyline.
Ryan Hannahoe, executive director of the Montana Learning Center at Canyon Ferry, said the exact time of the citing was 10:08 p.m. and he received a text from SpaceWeather.com explaining what happened.
"This may have been the fuel tank of an old Russian rocket,” the text stated. “Shortly before the explosion over Montana, the U.S. Department of Defense Space Track website issued a Trajectory Impact Prediction (TIP) message for an object called "BREEZE-M DEB (TANK)."
According to their alert, a Breeze-M fuel tank would fall into Earth's atmosphere "on July 13th at 04:06 ± 52 minutes UT. That fits the timing of the Montana explosion," the text stated.
The fuel tank had been orbiting Earth for almost 10 years. It was part of a rocket that launched Russia's Yamal 402 geostationary communications satellite on Dec. 8, 2012, SpaceWeather.com, which titled a posting about the incident "Space junk over Montana," said in its text. They said that recent increases in solar activity “accelerated its orbital decay, finally bringing it down in a fiery display."
Hannahoe said he had not heard reports of the tank making a rough landing on Earth.
“Thankfully most of the Earth is water so it lands in ocean,” he said.
He said the Montana Learning Center was able to capture the flaming image as it flew by. He said they have a seven-camera system that points skyward and the image was caught on three of the cameras.
The spectacle was reportedly seen pretty much throughout the state as people in Helena, Billings, Great Falls and Missoula weighed in on social media as well.
But not everyone, as at least one person on Facebook was disappointed she missed it.
“Man, I picked the wrong night to go to bed early,” she said.
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Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021.
Originally published on helenair.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
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