Ukrainian Space Agency launches investigation into explosion of unknown object over Kyiv

An unknown object that exploded in the sky over Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, on the evening of April 19 was most likely a "cosmic body," says the Main Special Control Center of Ukraine's State Space Agency.

Rubryka reports, citing the center, that information about the event is being clarified.

As the center emphasized, on April 19, 2023, at 21:57 Kyiv time, infrasound registered a high-energy acoustic event. The estimated place of the explosion's epicenter is in the Kyiv region.

"The event is probably related to a celestial body entering the dense layers of the atmosphere. The information is being clarified," the report emphasized.

Background

On April 19, a bright flash was recorded over Kyiv. After that, an air alert was announced in the capital and the region, and an aerial object was reported.

The capital authorities initially attributed the bright flash to the fall of a NASA space satellite to Earth.

However, the space agency refuted that the explosion over Kyiv could have been caused by a satellite falling from orbit. At that time, the satellite was still in orbit.

According to preliminary reports from the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the explosions over Kyiv around 10:30 p.m. may have been caused by the fall of a satellite or a meteorite. This information is still being clarified.

Meanwhile, the Alpha Centauri space education project suggests that it is not a satellite but a bolide  — a bright meteor, an object that explodes in the atmosphere.

They explained that NASA's RHESSI instrument, which observed solar flares from 2002 to 2018, should have entered the atmosphere on Wednesday. However, the trajectory of its fall is very far from Ukraine.

Space reported that a malfunctioning NASA satellite would fall to Earth on April 19-20.

The RHESSI satellite was decommissioned in 2018 and was expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere around 9:30 p.m. on April 19-20.

RHESSI is not a giant satellite. It weighs only 270 kilograms. It was noted that most of this mass should turn into ash and vapor during the fall.