Jakarta. A mysterious glowing object that streaked across the night sky over several parts of Indonesia caught widespread public attention over the weekend before scientists confirmed it was linked to a Chinese rocket launch.

Residents in Lampung, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Nusa Tenggara reported seeing the bright, curved light around 6:40 p.m. Jakarta time on Saturday, triggering a wave of UFO or meteor speculation on social media.

Researchers at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) later identified the phenomenon as the visible trail of China’s Smart Dragon-3, or Jielong-3, rocket.

Thomas Djamaluddin, a senior researcher in astronomy and astrophysics at BRIN, said the rocket was launched at 6:32 p.m. Jakarta time from a sea-based platform off Yangjiang, Guangdong province.

“The light seen in the sky was the trail of the Jielong-3 rocket as it headed into orbit,” Thomas said in a statement on Monday. “The glowing tail originated from rocket exhaust gases interacting with the upper atmosphere.”

According to him, the rocket’s flight path passed over parts of Indonesia, making the phenomenon visible across multiple regions.

The Jielong-3 is a solid-fueled rocket capable of reaching altitudes of up to around 500 kilometers. In this mission, it was used to deploy an internet satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit.

Thomas explained that the curved and elongated glow seen in the sky was a visual effect caused by sunlight reflecting off the rocket’s exhaust plume in the upper atmosphere. Although it was already nighttime on the ground, sunlight still illuminated the high-altitude gases, making them appear bright.

He also clarified that the event was different from another recent sighting earlier this month.

“What occurred on April 4 was the reentry of space debris from an older CZ-3B rocket,” he said. “What people saw on April 11 was an active rocket launch, not falling debris.”

The key distinction, he added, lies in how the phenomena appear. Space debris typically breaks apart and burns as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere, while rocket launches produce sustained glowing trails from exhaust gases interacting with atmospheric layers.

Such sightings are not dangerous, Thomas said, but are part of increasing global space activity that can occasionally be observed from Indonesia when launch trajectories pass over the region.