Bhubaneswar: The strange glowing contrail that lit up the evening sky over Odisha and triggered widespread speculation across the state has now been identified as the trail of a successfully tested advanced Agni missile.Since Friday evening, social media platforms were flooded with photos, videos and theories about the mysterious moving object seen streaking across the sky. Many residents in different parts of Odisha reported spotting a bright glowing trail that remained visible for several minutes, prompting curiosity and speculation.“We sighted a mysterious bright moving object in the sky over Bhubaneswar last evening. The glowing object was moving rapidly, leaving behind a long trail of smoke-like formation in the sky. Later, there were social media posts on people from other districts like Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore also sighting this rare aerial phenomenon,” said Krishna Tripathy, a resident of Bhubaneswar.Visuals from neighbouring West Bengal and even Bangladesh also showed the bright object moving across the sky, with many people claiming it was a missile launch, a rocket test or even an unidentified object. What added to the mystery was that a NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) had been issued that reportedly marked a massive 3,560-km corridor over the Bay of Bengal from May 6 to 9, something usually associated with long-range ballistic missile tests.Putting an end to the mystery, the ministry of defence on Saturday confirmed that India successfully carried out a flight trial of an advanced Agni missile equipped with a Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) system from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Chandipur coast in Balasore on May 8.According to the ministry, the missile was tested with multiple payloads aimed at different targets spread across a large geographical area in the Indian Ocean region. The trial demonstrated India’s capability to strike multiple strategic targets using a single missile platform.The ministry stated that telemetry and tracking operations were conducted through several ground-based and ship-based stations. These systems monitored the missile’s trajectory from lift-off to the impact of all payloads. “Flight data confirmed that all mission objectives were met during the trial,” the ministry said.With this successful trial, India once again demonstrated the capability to target multiple strategic targets using a single missile system. This missile was developed by DRDO laboratories with the support of industries across the country, the ministry stated.Defence experts said the glowing streak seen in the sky was likely caused by the missile’s exhaust plume interacting with sunlight at high altitude, creating an illuminated trail visible across large distances.
