A mystery fireball tearing through the night sky in Canada stunned thousands — and sparked fears of a meteor strike. Dramatic footage showed the flaming object breaking up as it soared above Saskatchewan and Alberta on Friday. Some worried it may have been a plane plummeting from the sky or an extra-terrestrial object heading for Earth. It later emerged the blazing mass was likely a rocket booster reentering earth’s atmosphere.
The Antares rocket helped propel a Cygnus spacecraft on its way to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. California’s Aerospace Corporation said the it was launched on 12 November. Eric Briggs, a volunteer with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, told state broadcaster CBC the footage matched what he would expect a rocket reentry to look like. He said: “I’d expect to see something flying from west to east, faster than an aircraft at high altitude with a trail following behind it and it appearing to break up into pieces”. READ MORE
