A brilliant streak of light resembling a meteor last night illuminated the skies over eastern Taiwan, with images captured in Taitung County showing what experts said was likely space debris burning through the atmosphere.
The event was captured by livestream cameras stationed along Taitung's east coast and at the Xiangyang mountain pass on the Southern Cross-Island Highway.
Footage showed a glowing fireball slowly traversing the night sky for about 15 seconds before splitting into two fiery fragments and disappearing.
Photo courtesy of the Taitung County Government
The object was not a meteor but most likely space debris from a manufactured object such as a satellite or rocket, Liu Chih-an (劉志安), a director of the Taipei Amateur Astronomers Association, said today.
Artificial objects entering the atmosphere typically move more slowly and often break apart during the final stage of re-entry, unlike meteors, which usually remain intact unless they are particularly large, Liu said.
Despite its artificial origins, the celestial display sparked widespread discussion on social media platforms, particularly Threads.
Because the object streaked across the sky for an unusually long 15 seconds — far longer than a typical shooting star — people flooded social media with jokes about making the most of the moment.
"Fifteen seconds is long enough to make a lot of wishes," one user said, while others asked whether wishes still counted if the object was merely space junk.
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