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Chinese Satellite Burns Up Over New Orleans, Creating Fireballs in the Sky

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Chinese satellite reentered through Earth ’s atmosphere on Saturday night and burned up over New Orleans , Louisiana .

The American Meteor Society received 152 witness reports of fireball sightings around 11 p.m. ET on December 22 .

Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell later identified the source of the fireball as the Chinese imaging satellite SuperView 1-02.

The satellite was decommissioned around two years ago and left to reentry through Earth 's atmosphere in an uncontrolled manner.