We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

A Chinese satellite exploded over New Orleans as it reentered the atmosphere on Saturday night.

The stunning display was also visible in parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri.

Most witnesses described it as looking like a shooting star.

The satellite appeared to split off into a cluster of fireballs as it plummeted towards the earth.

Used for imaging, the satellite reportedly belonged to the Beijing-based company SpaceView.

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics wrote in a post on X:

“The commercial imaging satellite 高景一号02星 (GaoJing 1-02, Superview 1-02), operated by Beijing-based SpaceView (北京航天世景信息技术有限公司) reentered above New Orleans at 0408 UTC Dec 22 (10.08 pm CST Dec 21) heading northbound towards MS, AR, MO and was widely observed.”

Many doubted the satellite’s identification, citing the strange drones that have been flying over New Jersey and much of the East Coast.

The New York Post reports:

Most of these completely disintegrate well before they reach the ground, and most pieces that remain intact land in the ocean.

There are around 30,000 pieces of floating space junk larger than a softball, and roughly 1,000 of those are as large as a spacecraft, NOAA said.

NASA keeps tabs on space junk with a Space Surveillance Network that uses a combination of space and ground-based equipment.