A large metal ring is suspected. Debris from space It crashed in a village in southern Kenya on Monday, the country's space agency said.
Oh Kenya Space Agency (KSA) official said that the partially charred metal object is about 2.5 meters in diameter, weighs about 500 kg and is probably a rocket fragment.
“Such objects are typically designed to burn up as they reenter Earth's atmosphere or fall over unoccupied areas such as oceans,” the space agency said in a New Year's Day statement to X. I have described this incident as “an isolated one”. Case.”
Residents of Mokoko village in Makweni County, southeast of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. He described his shock. On the crash landing of the wreckage.
Joseph Mutwa, a local resident, told Kenya's NTV news channel that he was tending to his cow when he heard a loud explosion. Translated from The New York Times. “I looked around; I couldn't see any smoke in the clouds. I went to the side of the road to see if there was a car accident, but there was no collision.
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“If this thing had fallen on a house, it would have been devastating,” Matua continued. “We didn't know if it was a bomb or whatever and it fell here.”
Mbooni sub-county police commander Julius Rotich told the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation The object was still hot When officers arrived Monday, and residents were kept away from the area until it cooled.
Space debris and space junk are a A growing problemand last year the European Space Agency estimated that there were. More than 13,000 tons of material in low Earth orbit – About a third of this has been identified as space junk.
The agency estimates that with about 110 new launches each year, as well as at least 10 annual breakups of existing satellites and other objects in space, the amount of space debris continues to grow.
Last year, when a A piece of orbital junk The discovery was made in rural Saskatchewan, the Canadian Space Agency told Global News. Takes the issue of space debris “very seriously”. And it's working to make sure it doesn't pose any “major threats” to Earth.
Barry Sawchuk found a large piece of suspected space debris, as shown in this handout photo provided by Sawchuk, in his farm field near Ituna, Sask., on February 28, 2024.
Barry Sawchuk / Handout / The Canadian Press
“With the increase in space traffic, space debris is a growing problem, which we are all working with national and international partners to find solutions to manage,” said Stephanie Durand, CSA. Vice President for Space Program Policy, said. time
According to KSA, the debris that fell in Kenya is being investigated under international space law.
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