Unlike in Revelation 8:8, this time John does not use the comparative “like.” This indicates that this star is real. In Revelation 1:20 the term “star” refers to an angel. What John sees in his vision, then, is a heavenly messenger carrying out the command of God to contaminate drinking water on earth.
10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.