On the evening of September 12, a video suddenly appeared on social media. A fireball falling at high speed was suddenly intercepted by another light spot, and a big explosion occurred in the air! The flower farmer was also confused when he saw this video, because judging from the trajectory of the video, the falling body was extremely suspected to be a meteor, but it was indeed intercepted. Is China's missiles so powerful? Can even the falling meteor bodies of dozens of Mach be intercepted?
Shandong shot down UFOs! Frame-by-frame analysis: It's true
On the evening of September 12, 2025, residents in Weifang, Rizhao, Jinan and other places in Shandong witnessed high-speed UFOs flying in the night sky. According to witnesses and videos taken, a high-speed falling fireball was intercepted by another fireball that was moving at the same high-speed in the opposite direction, and a bright fireball burst out from the air! According to witnesses, a loud noise came from the sky, and some residents said that the doors and windows were shaking!
The above picture is an animation of the video posted on social media. Judging from the video, the trajectory characteristics of the fireball from the upper right are very similar to the meteor's falling. This astronomical fellows must have some judgment. The falling fireball is caused by the aerodynamic heating of the meteor body flying at a high speed. The falling trajectory is similar to the trajectory of the meteor body entering the earth from outer space, but the subsequent big explosion is more interesting!
The above picture is a dashcam video of an asteroid entering the atmosphere detonating at a height of 30 kilometers on February 15, 2013, at around 9:20 am local time in Chelyabinsk. At that time, an asteroid with a diameter of about 18 meters and a weight of about 12,125 tons entered the atmosphere at a speed of 19 kilometers per second and disintegrated over Chelyabinsk. Its explosion power was equivalent to 30 Hiroshima atomic bombs, and about 1,500 people were injured and 3,000 houses were damaged.
Asteroids self-destruct after entering the atmosphere is a relatively common phenomenon, because asteroids are a relatively loose celestial body. After entering the atmosphere at high speed, they will be subjected to extreme hypersonic aerodynamics. The shock wave cone formed in front of them causes extremely dispersed forces in front and back of meteors. Under the action of this asymmetric force, it is normal for asteroids to disintegrate in the sky. Disintegrate at hypersonic speed will result in the same result as explosion. This is the reason for the self-destruction of asteroids.
The picture above is On December 18, 2018, an asteroid with a diameter of about 10 meters and a weight of about 1,500 tons exploded about 26 kilometers above the Bering Sea. It happened to be photographed by NASA's Terra satellite. There were more asteroids entering the atmosphere, and many self-destructed, but a large number of asteroids exploded over the no-man's land, and there were very few that could be recorded by satellites!
So the question is: Are the ones above Shandong, China shot down or self-destruction?
The above mentioned so many meteor bodies self-destruct. Is it because Shandong's meteor bodies also self-destructed this time? It's obvious that it's not! Because this fireball was clearly intercepted by another fireball before the explosion. It was not suspected, but very obvious, but the brightness was slightly lower. This can be seen clearly in all recorded videos. If you are interested, you can analyze it frame by frame:
Zhuanghuajia has reduced the frame rate to 0.3 seconds per picture. This one can be seen more clearly. Before the explosion, there was a very bright spot that almost collided head-on with it! So the question is, are these Chinese missiles so awesome? Can even meteor bodies falling at high speed intercept? Because the speed of entering the Earth's atmosphere from the meteoroid is between 11 kilometers/second and 72 kilometers/second.
Why is the speed difference so big? The answer is very simple. If the orbit of the meteor body is opposite to the earth, then the maximum speed is about 72 kilometers/year. If it is in the same direction, then the speed is about 11 kilometers/year. If it is on the back side or in the front side, then the speed will vary according to the angle. But the problem is that at least 11 kilometers/second, which is a "lowest speed".
Chinese missiles intercept meteor bodies at 11 kilometers per second? This is almost the second universe speed, which is too awesome! Coincidentally, just a few days ago on September 9, the US Congress released a video showing that the "Hellfire" missile hit a luminous sphere, but the sphere eventually flew away swayingly. China directly shot down the falling meteor body. Compared with the two, China is obviously much more clever!
It really shot down the meteor body? The answer may disappoint you!
The first time I saw this video, I was indeed suspected to be a meteor, but I found several problems. The meteor must have a plasma tail. This one doesn't have a speed, but it seems to be very fast, but it is still faster than the real meteor. The flower-growing family was also an astronomical enthusiast back then and still had a sense of the speed of meteors, so it was determined that this video must be a bit problematic at that time.
As expected, after checking more videos, I found that this video was part of a longer video clip. It may be intentional editing, or one is a panoramic view, and the other may be that I took out my phone to shoot late, and only took a falling track. The whole track is as shown in the picture below:
It is clear from this animation that this is an object moving in a parabolic shape and is intercepted in the descending section. It is obvious that this is a tactical ballistic missile or rocket launcher has been intercepted, and this interception technology is quite accurate! Weifang and Rizhao, Shandong are all on the seaside. It is very likely that it is a near-natural military exercise, because this kind of interception is unlikely to be carried out in densely populated areas. Because the interception height is relatively high, it just happened to be seen by coastal residents!
Go through the navigation warning of the Maritime Administration of the People's Republic of China, and you will indeed see a navigation warning of Shandong Airlines Police 674/25. The coordinates are as follows. The areas connected are probably the following figure:
This incident is very clear. It is basically a terminal interception test of a ballistic missile. Maybe it is an interception test of HQ-10. However, because the video compression is relatively powerful, it is difficult to see how long the ballistic trajectory was completed. It is not very good to have a lonely interception height, so it is not easy to analyze the types of missiles. The above is just a blind guess!
However, the interception result is very good when watching videos. This kind of missile may be similar to an interception mode like the Israeli Iron Dome, because the range is not large from the navigation warning area, with only a range of more than 30 kilometers. Therefore, the Chinese flower family judged that this is more likely to be a rocket launcher-type interception. It may use the HQ-10 short-range air defense system and intentionally lower the ballistics. Otherwise, the rocket engine of the rocket launcher would not work that long. The purpose should be to increase the end speed and increase the interception difficulty. This is a different way to find trouble for yourself!
China has far more than terminal interception in anti-missile interception. The test on the evening of September 12 was just terminal interception. In addition, the higher end + mid-section intercept of the equipment is HQ-19. According to public data, the size of this missile is 0.5 meters in diameter and about 7 meters long. Use an 8×8 wheeled high motor truck chassis, each vehicle is equipped with 6 interceptor bullets.
Using KKV warheads (kinetic energy interceptor bombs) can intercept external targets of the atmosphere below 200 kilometers. It can effectively intercept ballistic missiles in the mid-range flight stage, and can also descend to the edge of the atmosphere to intercept ballistic missiles or hypersonic gliders (HGVs) in the reentry stage. This kind of missile test is relatively large and should be seen in East China.
The other type is the HQ-29 displayed in this 93 military parade. There is no public data on this missile, but it is estimated that it should be an anti-missile interceptor missile similar to the SM-3, with a shooting height of about thousands of kilometers! It should be a kind of "mid-segment/space-segment interception and also ASAT (anti-satellite) capability". Once this missile is tested, the coverage area will be large, and at least half of China can see it.
Theoretical analysis: Can meteor bodies be intercepted?
After watching the anti-missile interception, I guess everyone hasn't enjoyed it yet! After all, I thought it was intercepting meteoroids, which was quite high-end, but when I finally found out that it was anti-missile interception, my heart was half-lost. So let’s discuss it next. If a meteoroid really penetrates into the atmosphere, can it really be intercepted with anti-missile missiles?
The first reaction of many friends is definitely impossible to intercept. The meteor body entering the atmosphere is at least 11 kilometers per second. How can it be intercepted? In fact, the answer may exceed your expectations. The most important thing to intercept is not speed, but whether the trajectory can be predicted and how long to discover it in advance!
First of all, the first question is that meteor bodies are extremely difficult to detect. For example, small celestial bodies with a diameter of only a few dozen meters are extremely difficult to discover with a telescope. For example, there is no chance during the day, because the entire sky is very bright after the atmosphere scatters, and the reflected light of the meteor bodies cannot be seen at all. What about at night? It is very weak and cannot be seen, and the telescope has very limited perspectives, and the perspective is smaller after magnification. It is too difficult to control the entire sky area.
It is too late to discover the second one. Suppose a meteor body is aerodynamicly heated to the infrared band at an altitude of 80 kilometers. This way, it can be discovered by monitoring the wide-area infrared band, but at this time the impact event is very short:
How long does it take for a meteor to penetrate the atmosphere at a speed of 11 km/sec and an angle of 30° from the ground?
If the atmospheric resistance factor is not considered, the time to hit the ground is about 15 seconds;
If the atmospheric resistance factor is considered, the event to hit the ground will be extended to about 40 to 70 seconds
So how long does the reaction time of the anti-missile system take? It takes at least 15 minutes for the missile to hit the target, and the medium and long-range ballistic missiles will take about 20 to 30 minutes. During this time, early warning satellites will discover the target, solve the ballistics, prepare for interception, launch interceptor bombs, climb high, accurately calculate the ballistics, preset interception points, collide, and destroy! The whole process takes about ten minutes.
This 70-second time is definitely impossible to intercept! This is because the reaction time is not enough, so the question is, if the reaction time is enough, can it be intercepted? Theoretically, it is certainly possible. For example, if you can accurately calculate which three-digit coordinate accuracy the meteor will pass through to a position of 1 meter, and the warning time will be extended to several hours, even if a helicopter is parked there, it can be intercepted, right? So it is impossible for missiles to intercept, right?
But I'm sorry, the trajectory of the meteor body cannot be calculated so accurately. The first observation is difficult, and the second observation accuracy is error; the third atmospheric aerodynamics are very complex, such as the mass, center of gravity and density of the meteor body, which will affect the trajectory, so it is basically impossible to accurately reach a certain range in advance, so it is also possible that many previews may go to the Indian Ocean to the landing point of the Pacific Ocean.
So it is impossible to intercept the trajectory when it is unpredictable and the time is not enough! This is also the main reason why hypersonic missiles cannot intercept. For example, the YJ-19 and CJ-1000 hypersonic missiles exhibited in the 93 parade use an aspirated scramjet engine with a speed of Mach 5+, and can maneuver in a large range in the atmosphere under the action of the aerodynamic wing surface!
Interceptor bombs are also very troublesome for this kind of missile, because the principle of anti-missile interception ballistic missiles is to accurately calculate the trajectory of the missile and then calculate the collision point. However, hypersonic missiles are not only fast, but their trajectory is also unpredictable, so the anti-missile interceptor missile is caught by blindly. If the trajectory changes, the anti-missile missile must calculate a new interception point. If the speed is not fast enough, it may not be able to reach the new interception point at all, and the interception will fail at this time.
Of course, hypersonic missiles are not impossible to intercept, such as using laser weapons! The LY-1 laser weapon exhibited in this 93 military parade is unknown what its power is. If it is 300KW, it can try to intercept anti-missiles. If it is 1000KW, it will enter the anti-missile "holstery". If it is 3000KW, it will become the "chief" of anti-missile missiles. To put it bluntly, it requires megawatt-class laser weapons to intercept such missiles. According to the current speed of China's laser weapons, it is estimated that it is not far from equipped with megawatt-class laser weapons.
