Daily Image
26-02-2025
Re-entering rocket body above Dwingeloo
| Submitter: | Albert van Duin, Felix Bettonvil, Tammo Jan Dijkema, Cees Bassa |
| Description: | In the early morning of February 18, the sky was illuminated by a large fireball. This triggered many reports from UK, Netherlands, Germany and Poland on the Internation Meteor Organization's Fireball Report website, and reports in the media. The fireball was spotted on many cameras, among which the all sky and meteor cameras of some ASTRON colleagues. Top left: Albert van Duin's all sky camera in Beilen, 30 seconds exposure. Top right: Felix Bettonvil's DAARO meteor camera (on ASTRON's roof), 59 seconds composite. Bottom left: Tammo Jan Dijkema's globalmeteornetwork camera, maximum pixel value over 10 seconds. Bottom right: Cees Bassa's all sky camera in Dwingeloo, 15 seconds exposure. It was quickly calculated that the re-entering body was the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that launched many Starlink satellites on February 1. Due to a leak, the burn that should have deorbited this stage into the ocean was not possible, which caused this unplanned passive deorbit above Europe. Several pieces of debris reached the ground in Poznan, Poland. |
| Copyright: | Albert van Duin, Felix Bettonvil, Tammo Jan Dijkema, Cees Bassa |
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