Space Debris or Asteroid: Potential Origins of Delhi-NCR’s Celestial Phenomenon

Nila Nagaraja
Oct 1
2 min read

At around 1:22 A.M, on Saturday, 20th September 2025, several students reported seeing a glowing object streak above campus, which was observed moving for about 5-7 seconds, tracing an arc in the sky.

Similar glowing objects were seen in various regions of Delhi NCR at the same time. The Ashoka football team present in Pilani also saw it moving eastward towards Delhi.

Students and faculty speculate that the body may have been a meteorite or a piece of spacecraft debris from a Chinese rocket *(CZ-3B R/B) that was predicted to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere on September 19th.

In conversation with The Edict, *Mohan Jain (UG’27), member of the Physics Society, explained that many believe the body to be a fragment of an asteroid that was passing by the Earth at the same time, which entered the atmosphere.

He said that he found the second theory, that the body was debris from the Chinese rocket, “more plausible” but added that it is “tough to know for sure”.

He reasoned that China has been negligent in the past in ensuring rocket parts fall safely, noting that the trajectory of the rocket **passed over India at the same time.

Dr. Sujan Sengupta, visiting Professor of the Physics Department, told The Edict that the available data is insufficient to determine the nature of the object. He noted that in his experience, he has observed asteroids travel at much greater speeds and with more brightness than the object seen on Saturday Morning.

However, he added that it is ‘‘more likely’’ to have been an asteroid, since no space agency has reported the body as debris from one of their spacecraft.

The streaks of fire have mostly been described as white, red, orange, and yellow. Jain explains the different coloured sparks as a result of varying metals/compounds ionising while burning.

As of publication, The Edict has been unable to confirm the whereabouts of the body's landfall.

*Psuedonyms have been used to preserve anonymity of the individual.

**The claim was made by a user on X (formerly Twitter) using the prediction and map made by www.aerospace.org. The Edict was unable to find other official sources that have corroborated or verified this estimation.