A house in Florida, in the United States, had its roof broken by an unknown cylindrical object weighing almost a kilo that fell from the sky. The case happened at the beginning of March this year and no one was injured. At first, the family who lived there was unable to identify what had hit the residence. But now it has been confirmed that it was space debris.
read more
Objects would have been discarded from the International Space Station
- After learning what happened, NASA recovered the wreckage.
- The main hypothesis is that they are discharged batteries from the International Space Station (ISS).
- The material should return to Earth in a controlled manner.
- However, a series of delays meant that the cargo missed its return journey to our planet.
- As a result, NASA discarded the ISS batteries in 2021 for an unguided reentry.
- Defying the odds, they ended up hitting the house.
- In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Alejandro Otero, owner of the residence, showed the damage caused to the property.
- Furthermore, he said he hopes to receive compensation from the competent authorities.
The risks of space debris
Although much of the space debris disintegrates in the atmosphere as it falls, some larger pieces may eventually travel to the ground. NASA claims about 80% of the world’s population lives in places that offer no protection against these objects falling from space.
Despite being low, the chances of someone being hit by materials from space are not zero. The fall of space debris has already been reported in several regions of the planet, including Brazil.
A recent published study indicates that 651 pieces of space debris are at risk of falling out of control in the next 10 years. According to NASA, there are more than 27 thousand pieces of space junk in orbit.
The sizes of these objects vary between a few millimeters and several meters. As the fall occurs at very high speeds, a possible impact could be fatal. The information is from UOL.
