Meteor Shower in Nagpur 2022: Meteor Shower or possible rocket re-entry witnessed in Maharashtra- Check all details of rare event here

Meteor Shower in Maharashtra: A rare event was witnessed in Nagpur and other parts of Maharashtra on Saturday night with blazing streaks of light piercing through the sky. While some are calling it a meteor shower, others are saying that it was actually a re-entry stage of a Chinese Rocket. 

In the footage captured by ANI, a thick streak of light appeared over the skies of Nagpur and several other parts of Maharashtra. People living in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were able to see the bright streak of light and thought it to be an unusual event of a meteor shower. 

Maharashtra | Yesterday night we received information about a 3-metre ring being found in a village in Sindewahi. Ring was hot & seemed like it has fallen from sky while spherical object was found in another village today morning: Ganesh Jagdale, Tehsildar, Sindewahi, Chandrapur pic.twitter.com/WhHl8c7257

— ANI (@ANI) April 3, 2022

What is a Meteor Shower?

A meteor shower is a celestial event that is also referred to as shooting stars when cosmic debris called meteoroids  or rocky objects enter the Earth's atmosphere at an extremely high speed, producing a shower of light streaks.

Rare sight re-entry of Chinese rocket?

As per experts, it might not be a meteor shower but actually the reentry of a rocket. If you look closely at the footage captured by ANI also, you can see faint traces of a rocket. 

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell called it a reentry of the third stage of Chang Zheng 3B, a Chinese rocket that was launched in February 2021. The rocket was expected to reenter around the same time. 

I believe this is the reentry of a Chinese rocket stage, the third stage of the Chang Zheng 3B serial number Y77 which was launched in Feb 2021 - it was expected to reenter in the next hour or so and the track is a good match pic.twitter.com/BetxCknAiK

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 2, 2022

In fact, unusual debris was found in Ladbori village in Chandrapur's Sindevahi. A 3-meter metal ring was discovered by the villagers and the ring was hot & seemed like it has fallen from sky. A spherical object was found in another village as well, as per Sindewahi Tehsildar Ganesh Jagdale. 

One more satellite fragments remains found in Sindevahi #chandrapur. This satellite piece have fallen in a Pawan Ghat lake. #meteorshowers #Meteorshower#Nagpur https://t.co/6XjkUCxKtD pic.twitter.com/PyIzuc9ZAs

— Praveen Mudholkar (@JournoMudholkar) April 3, 2022