Villagers in Kenya were left baffled after an eight feet metal ring suddenly fell to the ground and authorities believe that the object came from space as they continue to investigate
Kenya: Villagers discover large metallic ring
A giant hot ring has crashed down to Earth and experts believe that it has come from space.
Made of metal and weighing half a tonne, the bizarre object landed in a remote village in Kenya, the country’s space agency said. Villagers in Mukuku, south east of Nairobi, told how the “red and hot” ring landed at around 3pm on December 30 and it is thought to be a part from a rocket.
Luckily no-one was hurt when the eight feet metal piece of space junk fell from the sky, leaving people baffled. Kenya Space Agency secured and retrieved the intergalactic object.
“Preliminary assessments indicate that the fallen object is a separation ring from a launch vehicle,” said a spokesperson. Usually the separation ring burns up when it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere but for some reason this did not happen on this occasion.
The spokesperson added that the agency “wishes to clarify that the object, a metallic ring measuring 2.5 metres in diameter and weighing about 500kg, is a fragment of a space object.”
An investigation is underway into what has happened and authorities thanked the locals for their “prompt” action in reporting the metal ring. “This is an isolated case which the agency will investigate and address using the established framework under the international space law,” said the Kenya Space Agency.
“We want to assure the public that the object poses no immediate threat to safety. Our experts will analyse the object, use existing frameworks to identify the owner and keep the public informed of the next steps and outcomes.” The agency has also warned against people believing fake news on social media about possible space agencies which could be responsible for the debris.
While astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said the Kenyan agency could be mistaken about the source of the debris, saying it could not have come from a space shuttle’s rocket booster. “Totally impossible. The SRBs never reached orbit and have not been ‘in the sky’ since 2011,” the researcher from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said on social media. He has also said it is possible that it came from an aeroplane.
