Mystery of huge fireball in Peru's sky solved
A mysterious fireball that lit up Peruvian skies on Saturday has been identified as a piece of space litter.
The huge object was originally believed to be a meteorite but the Peruvian air force have since moved to quash such rumours.
Air force chiefs released images of the object they say is a fallen piece of space debris after the object was found in a field in an Andean community in southeastern Peru, Metro.co.uk reported.
Universidade Federal do Acre's meteorologist Alejandro Fonesca confirmed no meteorites had been expected and said it was either an old satellite or other human-made space litter.
"When the debris enters the atmosphere it comes under intense friction and this causes it to set on fire," he said.
According to the United States Strategic Command, they tracked a total of 17,852 artificial objects in earth’s orbit in 2016, including 1419 operational satellites.
