Baden-Württemberg Mysterious tail - experts: satellite instead of meteorite

A bright tail of light in the evening sky has caused a sensation over large parts of south-western Germany and Switzerland. Experts from the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) were quickly able to clear up the situation: According to them, the reason for the fast-moving, mysterious and highly luminous celestial spectacle on Tuesday evening was a Starlink satellite that entered the Earth's atmosphere over Switzerland and was visible in the southwest. The Space Situational Awareness Center of the German Armed Forces provided the BBK with this information, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Office.

Starlink satellites belong to Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX. They are designed to make fast internet available everywhere and fly at an altitude of around 500 kilometers. SpaceX is by far the largest operator with more than 5,000 Starlink satellites in Earth orbit, with a total of around 42,000 planned. According to the company, crashed Starlink satellites pose no threat to public safety.

In several cities in Baden-Württemberg, people called the police because they had seen the glow in the sky at around 9.30 pm. Such calls were received by the police headquarters in Ravensburg, Constance and Stuttgart, for example, according to their spokespersons.

"Probably parts of a satellite"

While callers and users of the X news platform suspected a meteorite was behind the spectacle, experts were quick to deny it. "Due to the rather slow speed and the type of fragmentation, I would guess that it was crashing space debris or something similar," said Fabian Mathis, President of the Astronomische Gesellschaft Zürcher Unterland, to the Swiss newspaper Blick. Space specialist Men Schmidt from St. Gallen (Switzerland) observed the event himself, as he told the newspaper. "A realistic explanation is that it is parts of a satellite or a rocket," he suspected.

Increasing space debris endangers space travel

According to the US space agency NASA, failed satellites or other space debris at an altitude of less than 600 kilometers fall back to earth within a few years. They usually burn up on re-entry into the atmosphere. Millions of pieces of debris are currently flying around the earth as space debris. In addition, according to the European Space Agency Esa, there are more than 12,500 satellites orbiting the planet - many of which are no longer functional.

This can also pose a threat to space travel. The Chinese space station "Tiangong" ("Heavenly Palace") was hit by space debris months ago and had to be serviced. The International Space Station (ISS) also has to dodge debris time and again.

SDA