A recent article on New Scientist shows a Cygnus spacecraft being incinerated during atmospheric re-entry.
The video was shot from a chartered aircraft out of Sydney, Australia - "to track the craft during its descent, recording how it brightened and broke up."
Note the **velocity** of the Cygnus spacecraft as it burns-up, which is much slower (relatively speaking) than a 'normal and natural' meteor/fireball/bolide.
This video can be used as a teaching tool to help differentiate between 'space trash' and space rocks - for future observations/reports.
Background 'space rock' update:
Overnight (7-July->8-July), there has been a small increase in the number of <0.5AU discoveries for current period "N" (1-Jul to 15-Jul). The new total rose to 388, with 2016 NN15.
So far, in period "N", the number of <10LD new discoveries increased to a modest 5; 2 of which are in the >1<5LD range and 3 in the >5<10LD range.
Total <0.5AU discoveries for 2016, so far, is 30,258. 217 of these have close-approaches <10LD (0.7171%).
Source for stats: EISSCO
2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
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