BRIN: Bright Object in the Sky Over Lampung and Banten as Space Debris

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Recently, a bright streaking object seen moving across the skies in the Lampung and Banten regions of Indonesia caught the public's attention and went viral on social media. Senior Researcher in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Dr. Thomas Djamaluddin, conveyed that the object was actually space debris, the remains of a China's Long March 3B (CZ-3B) rocket re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

According to him, the bright object appeared because the rocket entered the atmosphere at an extremely high speed. As it passed through denser atmospheric layers, it experienced intense atmospheric friction, generating extreme heat. This caused the rocket to disintegrate and break into multiple fragments, producing the bright light visible from the Earth's surface.

“The bright object seen in the sky was a fragment of space debris. As it entered the increasingly dense atmosphere, it burned up and broke apart, creating fiery debris,” Dr. Thomas told the BRIN Public Relations team on Sunday, 5 April 2026, according to the official BRIN website.

From orbital data analysis and object tracking, it was found that the rocket debris came from India and was heading towards the Indian Ocean to the west of Sumatra. At around 19:56 WIB, the rocket began to enter the denser atmosphere at an altitude of about 120 kilometers, where atmospheric drag caused a rapid decrease in speed and altitude. This resulted in the object burning up and fragmenting, creating a bright flash in the sky.

Although this kind of phenomenon is relatively common outside of Indonesia, such a visible event in the country is quite rare. Thomas also noted that a similar event occurred in 2022 when a similar object was seen in Lampung and fell in Sanggau, West Kalimantan.

He emphasized that the genuine risk involves any parts that do not burn up completely and fall in populated areas, though this has never happened anywhere in the world to date.

He urged the public to remain calm and not panic if they witness a similar phenomenon in the future. According to him, this phenomenon offers an opportunity to spark public interest in space science and the phenomena occurring in outer space.