It wasn't a meteorite: China is behind the huge fireball that disintegrated over Spain.

On the night of Sunday, August 10, a huge fireball could be seen disintegrating from several provinces in southeastern Spain, leaving a large trail that could be seen in Andalusia, Murcia, the Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands.

Videos have begun to emerge on social media from various users showing what appeared to be a meteorite streaking across the sky and disintegrating. The striking and spectacular images have drawn a lot of attention and raised questions about what exactly this phenomenon was.

While many believe it's a meteorite from the Perseid meteor shower that began this weekend, the truth is that it has nothing to do with the meteorite, as it's actually a Chinese rocket that ended up re-entering orbit after completing its mission.

It was on August 8th that China launched a Jielong-3 model rocket . This 31-meter-long rocket was part of a mission by the Asian giant to put a LEO communications satellite into orbit for the Chinese car manufacturer Geely Automotive , with which they seek to test autonomous driving services.

This was the sixth mission for the rocket, which consisted of four parts. Upon deployment, the last part re-entered orbit around 11:50 p.m. this Sunday, according to the Bolide and Meteorite Research Network (SPMN).

The re-entry of this satellite into orbit caused its pieces to break off and disintegrate in the atmosphere, creating bright trails in the sky, something meteorites do not do.

Although the trail is very striking and beautiful to look at, it's actually space debris . This is quite common, and every day, debris from satellites and rockets falls into the ocean or unpopulated areas of the Earth, so these impacts often go unnoticed.

Although it's common, space debris can pose risks to both space missions and Earth itself. It can interfere with or collide with other spacecraft or satellites, and can contaminate areas, as this debris can contain hazardous materials.