At around 7:30PM, October 16, 2017 UAE Local Time, a somewhat mysterious flying object was spotted across the skies of the UAE. The sighting lasted for about 80 seconds that appeared from the general northwestern direction and traveled southwards. There is completely nothing to worry about aliens or any other object that could catastrophically impact Earth whatsoever. Upon witnessing it, some claim that it could be a meteor, comet, or UFO. After further investigations, it was determined as the re-entry of the body parts of SL-4 R/B or the Progress MS-07, a Russian cargo spacecraft.

This unmanned cargo spacecraft was launched through the Soyuz 2 rocket operated by the Roscosmos State Corporation and the Russian Aerospace Forces from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last October 14, 2017 at 11:46AM (Moscow time) to the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver supplies such as water, food, oxygen, and fuel for the astronauts aboard. Upon reaching the space station, three separation stages were conducted wherein its parts were detached when no longer needed to the main payload for its deployment and to attain proper path trajectory.

As its debris return to Earth, these burn up due to intense heat caused by compression of air in front of it as it falls down quickly in the atmosphere. The same process applies with other space debris such as little remnants of asteroids and comets which brings meteor showers.

Below is the CCTV footage of the Progress MS-07 re-entry taken from Al Sadeem Observatory.

References

International Astronomical Center (IAC). Retrieved from http://www.icoproject.org/

Progress MS-07. (2017, October 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Progress_MS-07&oldid=805314124

Zak, A. (2017, October 16). Progress MS-07 arrives at ISS. Retrieved from RussiaSpaceWeb.com: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/progress-ms-07.html