Unidentified space balls—large metallic spheres, that is, not Mel Brooks and Rick Moranis—fell from the sky and landed in northern Vietnam on Saturday, various media outlets have reported.
According to CBC News, a total of three metal spheres were spotted in the sky by witnesses who also reported hearing noises similar to thunder before the objects crash-landed. Two balls, one of which weighed 250 grams and the other weighing six kilograms, landed in Yen Bai province.
The smaller of those two spheres hit the roof of a house, while the larger one landed in a garden, they added. A third, much larger one weighing up to 45 kilograms landed in a stream near a corn field in nearby Tuyen Quang province. All three have scorched surfaces, according to Mashable.
The balls, which are believed to have been Russian in origin due to the Russian writing on their sides, were seized by the Vietnamese government and are being investigated by defense officials. Their findings will be reported to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
So where did these space balls come from, anyway?
There was some initial speculation that the metallic spheres came from the Vietnamese Army, but reports indicate that those theories have been disproven, largely due to the Russian writing found on their sides—although the orbs still might have been sold to another country.
Investigators have determined that the objects are actually compressed air tanks, possibly from a rocket or a satellite, and are in essence space junk. Nguyen Khoa Son, a professor at Vietnam’s State Space Science and Technology Program, told VietnamNet Bridge that they likely fell from an altitude of less than 100 kilometers, since they were still intact after impact.
Furthermore, the investigators have confirmed that the balls are pure metal, are not radioactive, and contain no explosive materials. Son and experts from the Vietnam Space Center believe that the objects might have been from a liquid gas tank from a satellite’s control engine. However, no official conclusions have been reached and the investigation is still ongoing, government officials emphasized.
The incident is similar to one that occurred last November, when similar strange metal orbs were reported in Spain and Turkey. Those orbs, where were up to 45 kilograms large, were also said to be space junk, most likely from an aerospace vehicle or a satellite, The Express reported.
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Feature Image: VTV3
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