Family of stargazers left bewildered on seeing a myserious 'orange' ball of light falling from the sky
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: In Melbourne, a family of stargazers was using a telescope when they noticed a strange object moving through the sky. Sebastian Flood, 11, thought it was a meteor when the family spotted the ball of light dropping from the sky in the city's north at 6.30pm local time on April 8. “I was a little bit worried, but I wasn’t thinking it was big enough to do what it did to the dinosaurs ... it would have just made a crater,” Flood said.
“It was just amazing,” he added. His sister, Rilee, said the object “looked like a ball with orange stuff around it”. Paul Grimison, the boy's stepfather, claimed that he was perplexed by the sight and was debating whether it was a meteor or space debris.
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'It could be space junk coming in'
Astronomers examined the video and speculated that the mysterious object might be an optical illusion. Experts said that 200 to 400 trapped objects enter Earth's atmosphere annually but in this case, it seemed to be a plane. Astronomers claimed that while such sights contributed to the widespread misunderstanding, they were nevertheless rare due to there being specific requirements and circumstances in order to be able to witness the optical illusion.
“A trick of perspective ... It’s visible under certain atmospheric conditions and especially if aeroplanes are flying towards the west around sunset,” Perry Vlahos from the Astronomical Society of Victoria told 7News. While the object is thought to be a plane, not all specialists are convinced of this. “When I first looked at the video, it actually looks like an aircraft contrail ... but I can’t honestly be certain. It could be space junk coming in,” Astronomy lecturer Paul Curnow from the Adelaide Planetarium said.
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In 2020, astronomers were able to photograph cosmic fireworks about 8,000 light years away in a star cluster in our galaxy. According to scientists, the vibrant explosion heralds the birth of new stars, which are currently in various phases of growth. It might take a million years for all of these forming star bodies to become visible in the sky. The majority of stars, like the Sun, are born in star clusters. They provide the "molecular gases," which are the building blocks for stars. They nourish the newborn stars, serving as stellar nurseries in other words. However, there are still many aspects of star formation that are beyond human comprehension.
