A bright green fireball was spotted streaking across the sky in Moscow in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Footage shared by local media showed the glowing green object with a long, bright tail racing across the sky before disappearing from view.
Witnesses in several other cities in the Moscow Region all reported seeing the mysterious light.
‘It looks like a meteor, I’ve never seen anything so bright,’ one wrote.
Others had a more likely explanation for the mystery object – tests of Vladimir Putin’s Burevestnik nuclear-power cruise missiles.
The 9M730 Burevestnik is a nuclear-powered cruise missile being developed by Russia for its Armed Forces, which was being tested last week.
However, experts later said that the light was not a meteor or a missile but a fragment of space debris burning up in the atmosphere.
Sergey Bogachev, head of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said these ‘fireballs’ can be observed quite regularly in the night sky by those who know where to look.
According to NASA data, around 100 tonnes of cosmic dust and small debris enter Earth’s atmosphere every day, most of which burn away completely at altitudes between 80 and 120 kilometres.
What is Putin’s Burevestnik missle?
As for the other speculations of what the green fireball could be, eagle-eyed Russians thought it was a Burevestnik missile, dubbed the ‘Flying Chernobyl’, which is a nuclear-capable weapon which Putin claims is unstoppable.
But after its ‘successful’ secret test flights last week, an expert warned that the military boast is just another way to strike up fear for World War Three.
John Erath, senior policy director for the Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said: ‘Russia has claimed to have tested its long-range Burevestnik cruise missile.
‘The ranges claimed by Russia at which this missile can operate have led to speculation that it may be nuclear-powered, as did the presence of a radiation clean-up crew following an unsuccessful test in 2017.
‘Regardless of the missile’s propulsion, this weapon provides no additional capability to Russia, which already possesses ICBMs with global range.
‘The recent announcement is more likely a propaganda ploy to generate concern in the West about possible nuclear escalation should Russia’s war of aggression be opposed through continued military assistance to Ukraine.’
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