The final moments of the Goce satellite were caught on camera as it blazed across the sky above the South Atlantic.
Falkland Islander Bill Chater managed to record the scene as he returned from a day's outing to see penguins.
“We saw what we first thought was a shooting star,†Bill told me.
“It soon became obvious it was the satellite we had heard about on BBC Radio News an hour before.
“It left a long trail of smoke which was bright white in the dark sky, presumably lit by the Sun which we could no longer see.â€
Goce's fall to Earth on Sunday night made it the first European Space Agency (Esa) mission to make an uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere in more than 25 years.
Falkland Islander Bill Chater managed to record the scene as he returned from a day's outing to see penguins.
“We saw what we first thought was a shooting star,†Bill told me.
“It soon became obvious it was the satellite we had heard about on BBC Radio News an hour before.
“It left a long trail of smoke which was bright white in the dark sky, presumably lit by the Sun which we could no longer see.â€
Goce's fall to Earth on Sunday night made it the first European Space Agency (Esa) mission to make an uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere in more than 25 years.