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Michael J. I. Brown, Associate Professor in Astronomy, Monash University

INSANE: Comet rocket space junk or meteor here s how to tell your fireballs apart | Rare Historical Photos

A blaze of light streaks across the sky, but what is it? Wendy Miller/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

There’s a blaze of light across the sky! A fireball is seen by thousands, and mobile phone and dashcam footage soon appears on social media.

But what have people just seen? A mix of social media hashtags suggests confusion about what has streaked overhead. Was it a Soviet Venus probe? Was it one of Elon Musk’s satellites or rockets? Was it a meteor? Was it a comet?

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