A '500 kg giant object' mysteriously fell from the sky onto a town in Kenya.
Space debris falls in Kenya ,A huge metal ring, believed to be space debris, fell in the village of Mukuku in southern Kenya this week, the country’s space agency said. Kenyan authorities said on Wednesday they were investigating metal pieces from a rocket that fell in the country’s north, according to Wahke Staanik broadcasting. The national space agency has launched an immediate investigation after local villagers reported that a huge object fell from the sky over the Kenyan town on Monday afternoon.
The object was later identified as a “fragment of a space object,” according to a statement from the Kenya Space Agency on Wednesday. The Kenya Space Agency said it had taken control of the object that crashed in the isolated village of Mukuku in the southern county of Makueni, describing it as apparent space debris measuring 2.5 meters (about 8 feet) wide and weighing 500 kilograms (about 1,100 pounds).
According to AFP, the Kenya Space Agency, along with other agencies and local authorities “secured the area and removed the debris, which has now been taken into the agency’s custody for further investigation,” the Kenya Space Agency said. The issue of space debris has grown alongside increasing space traffic. “The agency would like to clarify that the object, resembling a metal ring measuring about 2.5 meters in diameter and weighing about 500 kilograms, is a fragment of a space object,” the agency said. According to initial estimates, it is a ring that broke off from a rocket, with space debris often falling into the ocean or burning up before hitting the Earth’s atmosphere.
What do the people who witnessed this incident have to say?
“I was tending to my cow and I heard a loud bang,” local resident Joseph Mutua told a Kenyan TV news channel, according to a local journalist. “I looked around and saw no smoke in the clouds. I went to the side of the road to see if there was a vehicle accident, but there was nothing,” he reported. Mr Mutua and his neighbours looked up and saw a huge round object slowly falling from the sky. Some residents said it looked like the steering wheel of a huge vehicle and glowed red while falling. According to television news, it cooled and turned grey after falling into a bush, destroying trees and plants. The statement further said the fallen object is likely a unique phenomenon and is currently being investigated. Residents of Makueni County, located southeast of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, were shocked by the landing of space junk on an otherwise peaceful Monday afternoon. While the agency assured residents of Mukuku village that the removed ring posed no threat, the people of the village were angered by the intrusion.
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What causes space debris to fall?
What causes space debris to fall?
Space debris falls when pieces of defunct satellites, rocket stages or other man-made objects re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. While most debris burns up due to the intense heat during re-entry, larger pieces can survive and reach the ground. These events are becoming more common as the amount of orbiting debris increases with growing space activities. Space debris can pose safety risks, damage property and harm ecosystems, although incidents of human injuries are rare. Countries and space organizations are developing strategies to reduce these risks, such as designing spacecraft to burn up completely during re-entry and tracking objects to predict potential impacts. International cooperation and sustainable space practices are important for managing space debris and reducing its risks to Earth and space operations.