A bright object illuminated the skies in County Kildare on Wednesday night which has sparked much intrigue.<\/p>\n
It was a strange burst of light that surprised many people, with some describing it as having a “halo” and saying it was moving at “varying speed” on social media.<\/p>\n
But what was the cause of the mysterious object which lit up skies across the island of Ireland on Wednesday evening?<\/p>\n
People from Portglenone in County Antrim to County Kildare in the Republic of Ireland took to the internet to comment on the strange phenomena.<\/p>\n
According to experts, the object was likely the debris of an Elon Musk SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which was launched from Florida on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
It was said to be caused by the process of excess rocket fuel being ejected and freezing, then reflecting light back to earth.<\/p>\n
The rocket’s path matches the reported sightings, experts have said.<\/p>\n
Mr Musk owns Space X which operates a series of low-earth orbit satellites for Starlink, an international satellite telecommunications service.<\/p>\n
Leo Enright, a space commentator, said fuel ejecting from rockets is a normal occurrence.<\/p>\n
He said if the fuel is kept in the rocket there is a danger that it will explode and release debris, so ejecting fuel is standard practice for space companies.<\/p>\n
Mr Enright explained that lighting conditions are the reason why the spectacle had not been noticed before across the island of Ireland.<\/p>\n
“It’s all to do with lighting, and also honestly seeing anything from Ireland is a challenge,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So I’m sure it’s happened in the sky and we just couldn’t see it because of cloud.”<\/p>\n
Mr Enright said: “The reason why Ireland is quite vulnerable [to space debris] is that we are, generally speaking, at the highest point on the map of the launch trajectory of the rockets out of Cape Canaveral [in Florida].”<\/p>\n