Flashes over Australian skies likely from Russian rocket: Space agency

The Australian Space Agency said on Tuesday that the flashes of light observed in the skies above southeastern Australia on Monday are "likely the remnants of a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket re-entering the Earth's atmosphere."

The object was thought to be a meteor in the region, however, the space agency said that it was probably man-made rocket debris re-entering the atmosphere.

"Launch of the Soyuz-2 rocket occurred from Plesetsk Cosmodrome earlier in the evening. According to Russian authorities, the launch placed a new generation 'GLONASS-K2' global navigation satellite into orbit," the space agency said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.

The agency noted that the launch was "notified and remnants of the rocket were planned to safely re-enter the atmosphere into the ocean off the southeast coast of Tasmania."