A Chinese satellite, the XYJ-7, crossed the Canary Islands' sky last night, disintegrating like a fireball as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, causing a series of explosions that were felt on several islands and even recorded on their seismic monitoring network.
The object was also detected by the State Meteorological Agency station in Izaña, located next to the Teide astronomical observatory, in Tenerife.
"We have identified, from @ICE_CSIC, this satellite reentry today, October 16, 2025, at 01:57:27 UTC over Tenerife. Its fragmentation produced a train of sonic waves captured by some 13 seismic stations of the Canary Islands Geophysical Center," Professor Josep Trigo, a member of the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), explained via his X account.
The Spanish Fireball and Meteorite Research Network, led by the ICE-CSIC, specifies that it is the XYJ-7 satellite.
Another aerospace expert who cooperated in the identification with Professor Trigo, researcher Marco Langbroek, from the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), specifies that this satellite was put into orbit in 2020.
"Time and celestial trajectory coincide well, analysis and propagation of orbital evolution suggest a re-entry in the early morning of October 16," Langbroek noted on his X account.
The Canary Islands Seismic Network had registered during the night the signal of what they called a bolide that was visible from several islands of the archipelago around 02:58 hours (1:58 GMT, or UTC), according to the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan).
The phenomenon, described by Involcan on its social media as the “visit of a cosmic object” in the Earth's atmosphere that released a large amount of energy upon disintegrating, generating a shock wave perceptible in seismic records and on the surface.
The Earth is "continually exposed to the bombardment of objects of cosmic origin, composed mainly of rock or metal. Generally, these objects are minuscule in size, comparable to that of a grain of sand. Upon entering the atmosphere at speeds of tens of kilometers per second, they vaporize, generating the phenomenon known as shooting stars," explained Involcan.
Occasionally, larger objects, of natural or artificial origin, such as in this case the re-entry of space debris, pass through the atmosphere.
"In these cases, the energy released is considerably higher. In addition to the intense luminosity, the event can generate a shock wave strong enough to be perceived by people and cause ground movement similar to a tremor. This phenomenon is known as a bolide," he explains.
According to Involcan, the captured signal was composed of dozens of distinct shock waves, each associated with fragments of the object that separated during its entry into the atmosphere.
This process has also been confirmed by numerous videos shared on social media, which show the fragmentation and dispersion of the object.
The preliminary analysis of the seismic data indicated that the most probable location of the phenomenon is on the island of Tenerife, although the signal was detected at stations throughout practically the entire archipelago.
Involcan has reminded that this type of event is relatively frequent, since the Earth is continuously exposed to the impact of objects of cosmic origin.
However, "bolides," due to their larger size and speed, can generate intense luminosity and, in exceptional cases, shock waves strong enough to cause material damage.
"Bolides do not normally pose any danger. However, in exceptional cases, their shock waves can be strong enough to shatter windows and cause damage, as happened in Russia in 2013," recalls Involcan.