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A vibrant green fireball was spotted streaking across the sky in Moscow within the early hours of yesterday morning.
Footage shared by local media showed the glowing green object with a protracted, vibrant tail racing across the sky before disappearing from view.
Witnesses in several other cities within the Moscow Region all reported seeing the mysterious light.
‘It looks like a meteor, I’ve never seen anything so vibrant,’ 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.
Nonetheless, experts later said that the sunshine was not a meteor or a missile but a fraction of space debris burning up within the atmosphere.
Sergey Bogachev, head of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said these ‘fireballs’ will be observed quite repeatedly within the night sky by those that know where to look.
Based on NASA data, around 100 tonnes of cosmic dust and small debris enter Earth’s atmosphere day by day, most of which burn away completely at altitudes between 80 and 120 kilometres.
What’s Putin’s Burevestnik missle?
As for the opposite speculations of what the green fireball may very well 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 authority warned that the military boast is just one other approach 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 might be nuclear-powered, as did the presence of a radiation clean-up crew following an unsuccessful test in 2017.
‘Whatever 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 within the West about possible nuclear escalation should Russia’s war of aggression be opposed through continued military assistance to Ukraine.’
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