RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Uruguay’s typical southern summer tranquility on the coasts and in the countryside was abruptly interrupted on the night of January 3, when tourists and locals saw a fireball streaking across the night sky.
The phenomenon was recorded by a woman in the town of Quebrada de los Cuervos, a protected tourist area among the mountains in the department of Treinta y Tres, in eastern Uruguay. While filming, several witnesses wondered if what they saw in the sky was a comet or some kind of aircraft.
But it was neither of the two options: the footage reached Uruguayan astronomer Gonzalo Tancredi, who posted it on Twitter and shared with his followers an explanation that reassured observers.
“Several reports of a bright phenomenon in the Uruguayan sky. It was the approach of Russian satellite Cosmos 1437 (Id 13770),” the scientist explained.
Uruguayan astronomy professor Juan Ceretta corroborated what Tancredi said and explained that the satellite “burned due to friction with the air” when entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
The fireball was also visible from southern Brazil. One of the best records was taken by the Brazilian Meteor Observation Network (BRAMON), which released images of the moment when the satellite disintegrated as it returned to Earth.
Cosmos 1437 ended its useful life 39 years after being launched into orbit on January 20, 1983 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the then Soviet Union.
According to BRAMON, the satellite performed intelligence tasks for the Soviet Union and, almost four decades later, its re-entry into the atmosphere was planned.
The Brazilian organization also clarified that the satellite’s re-entry into the atmosphere “poses no risk to the population on the ground,” since much of its structure evaporated as it entered the atmosphere.
“Only the most massive and resistant parts are able to withstand the heat of re-entry, but these will most likely fall in the Ocean, after crossing the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, as well as Uruguay,” the Brazilian observers explained.
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