MALANG - Residents in the Malang Regency area, East Java were surprised by the appearance of an unusual celestial object. The local BMKG stated that the object was not a missile, but a space debris or rocket that burned when entering the atmosphere.
"It's not a missile, initial analysis shows that the object is most likely space debris or a rocket stage that burns (re-entry) when entering the Earth's atmosphere," said the Head of the BMKG Geophysical Station Malang Ricko Kardoso, quoted by ANTARA, Sunday, April 12.
Ricko explained that the bright light coming from the atmospheric debris resembled a jellyfish tail or was referred to as a space jellyfish due to the reflection of sunlight on rocket exhaust.
"The effect of the space jellyfish is that the visible light extends with a wide tail of gas, often caused by Chinese rockets, such as the Long March CZ-3B, which reflects sunlight at high altitudes when the earth is dark," he said.
Furthermore, he said that the luminous celestial body that appeared in the Malang Regency area had also been seen in other areas of Indonesia, such as in Lampung on April 4, 2026 and Natuna on April 9, 2026.
"This phenomenon often occurs in the equatorial region, because it is the orbit path of satellites and space debris that burn," he continued.
Therefore, his party asked the public not to panic about the appearance of the object.
"People don't need to worry about that phenomenon," said Ricko.
The sighting of the luminous celestial object was known to appear on Saturday (11/4) and was recorded by a citizen's mobile camera. The video was uploaded via the Instagram account @malang_kidulan.
Based on the location information, the video was uploaded in the Slorok District, Kromengan District, Malang Regency, East Java.
In the upload narrative, it is stated that the luminous celestial body was recorded on Saturday (11/4) at 18.46 WIB.
"South Malang residents were shaken by the phenomenon of the sky allegedly being a missile, at 18.46 WIB (Saturday, April 11, 2026). In the video the distance is very far and moves quickly horizontally," wrote the narration on the video upload.
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