Astronomy

‘Space junk:' What were the objects streaking across the night sky in Chicago suburbs?

The objects were seen streaking across parts of Chicago's western suburbs Tuesday, including Yorkville and Wadsworth -- and no, they were not meteors

Did you see it?

Some in the western suburbs of Chicago Tuesday, including Yorkville and Wadsworth, reported seeing objects streaking across the night sky, leaving a trail of what appeared to be flames in their wake.

Video captured by Yorkville, Illinois resident Nannette Englehardt showed the objects flying from west to east across the sky at approximately 9 p.m. Tuesday night.

There were no immediate reports of any of the debris hitting the ground, and NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, has not yet issued a report on the incident.

So what exactly were they?

According to NBC 5 Meteorologist Alicia Roman, the objects did not appear to be meteors. Instead, it was likely "space junk," or "space debris."

"There's over 5,000 tons of space junk orbiting the atmosphere," Roman explained. "Sometimes you get this atmospheric drag, or basically, a pull that takes that junk out of orbit, and it comes into our atmosphere."

Once it reaches our atmosphere, Roman said, it burns up.

"So that's why you saw the trail of flames, and it disintegrates," Roman added.

Much of the time, the debris doesn't reach the ground, but may land in the ocean Roman said, or a rural area.

"But a lot of the time, it just disintegrates," Roman said. "That's what we saw last night."

Roman explained the "space junk" is from things like non-functioning satellites spacecrafts and leftover debris from space missions.

"If it was a rock, it would become a meteor," Roman said, noting however the debris could include parts of meteors.

Roman added that the sight is rare, which makes it even more special to have been seen in the Chicago area.

'Space junk'

A blog from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes "space junk" or space debris as the collection of defunct man-made objects in space like old satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments from disintegration, erosion, and collisions."

"They all travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft, which is a dramatic potential danger to all space vehicles, especially to those that are manned spacecrafts like the International Space Station," the blog goes on to say.

"It's a wonder, with so much orbital debris, there have been only a few disastrous collisions," NOAA said.

Scientists have warned that with more satellites floating in the Earth’s atmosphere that more instances of spacecraft reentering and burning up in the atmosphere could take place, and some have even warned that vaporized metals could continue floating around in the stratosphere, causing potential pollution and other effects, according to Scientific American.

Contact Us