Mysterious white light over Kyiv sparks numerous theories

A white light flashed across the sky in Kyiv last night and left everyone confused.

The light was seen at around 10pm local time (7pm GMT) and came with no noise or damage.

The Ukrainian Air Force said it wasn’t a Russian air attack.

So what was it?

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Some people reckoned it was Ukraine's own air defences. And Ukraine initially corroborated that theory until the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko explaining: “Air defence was not in operation.”

Then people speculated about Nasa, with Ukrainian officials suggesting early information implied the “phenomenon was the result of a Nasa space satellite falling to Earth”.

After all, Nasa is expecting a 300kg satellite (called RHESSI) to return to Earth this week, but a Nasa spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP) it hadn't happened yet. They said: “That reentry has not yet occurred – RHESSI is still in orbit. NASA and the Department of Defence continue to track RHESSI. No other NASA satellite reentered the atmosphere earlier today.”

That left people thinking it could have been a meteorite.

Igor Korniyenko, deputy head of a control centre at Ukraine’s national space agency, said: “We cannot identify what it was exactly, but our assumption is that it was a meteorite.

“Our observation devices showed it was a powerful explosion. We recorded it and determined where it took place.”

What a mystery.

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