MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. A falling meteorite was the most likely cause of the bright flash that was seen in the sky over Kiev on the evening of April 19.
"On April 19, 2023 at 9:57 p.m. Kiev time (same as Moscow time - TASS) infrasound equipment of the Main Center for Special Control on the Territory of Ukraine registered a high-energy acoustic event. The estimated place of the explosion’s center was in the Kiev region. <...> It is most likely that the flare was caused by a falling meteorite from the Lyrid shower," reads the news release uploaded to the website of the Ukrainian space agency.
The agency stressed that reports about a NASA satellite possibly falling from orbit have not been confirmed.
It was noted that each year in April, the Earth enters the plume of Comet Thatcher and is literally showered with meteorites. According to the space agency, meteorites passing through the Earth's atmosphere produce bright flashes or so-called fireballs.
On Wednesday, eyewitnesses told TASS that they had seen three bright flashes in the sky over the northwestern districts of Kiev. An air alert was declared in the city. The Kiev authorities speculated that the phenomenon might have been due to a NASA satellite re-entering the atmosphere. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration denied this, saying that none of its satellites entered the Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday. The head of the Kiev city military administration Sergey Popko said on Thursday that Kiev's air defense system had not fired any weapons on Wednesday evening.