We have all heard of shooting stars and we consider them lucky as well. But in scientific terms, they are actually some space particles falling on Earth which can be dangerous also. Not only this, a lot of particles fall on Earth in different areas. Here are some of the strange things to fall from outer space.
Strange Things To Fall From Outer Space
1. Meteorites
We all must have heard the terms ‘falling stars’ or ‘shooting stars. But these are actually not stars but small pieces of rocks having less than 1 diameter coming from outer space which produces some light in the sky making us think about stars and are referred to as meteoroids. There are very few meteoroids that reach the ground of the Earth and the reaching ones are called meteorites. Pieces that get burnt and destroyed in the sky before reaching Earth are acknowledged as meteors. Nearly 500 Meteorites fall on the ground but just 5 or 6 are got.
2. Diamonds Phosphorescing
In Nubian Desert Sudan, a meteoroid fell on Earth in 2008 it got trapped by scientists before landing on the Earth and was named ‘Almahata Sitta’. When fragments were recovered and examined, scientists found that the meteoroid not only contained rocks but also diamonds. You must be thinking that diamonds are found more easily on Earth than in outer space but, studies concluded that the diamonds inside Almahata Sitta were actually the biggest diamonds ever seen. When asteroids crash, extreme heat I produced which crushes the carbon and creates tiny diamonds.
Also Read: Top 10 Space Discoveries Of The 21st century
Image Source: James St. JohnFollow
3. Nuclear Waste
The Soviet Union launched a Russian satellite named Kosmos 954 in 1977. But due to some faults, the nuclear reactor which had to get separated did not separate and remained attached. Due to this, instead of reaching space, satellites came back to Earth, and the radioactive debris knock-out in Northern Canada after a year.
To regain the debris a program named Operation Morning Light was planned in which a team was scattered over an area of 48000 square miles in Yellowknife. They investigated the complete area for several months. The complete program was planned in two phases to retrieve the 12 bid pieces of debris. Out of these 12 pieces, only 2 pieces were not radioactive and this incident is considered to be one of the most well-known crashes.
Image Source: Wikimedia
4. A Person
Felix Baumgartner also renowned as fearless Felix is a well-known skydiver and Austrian BASE jumper. He got famous in 2012 when he participated in Red Bull Stratos’ daredevil jump. He used a helium balloon to reach the stratosphere which is considered the second major layer of the Earth’s surface. He made a freefall of 36402.6 meters back to Earth and not only this, Felix was the first human who smashed the barrier of sound outside a vehicle.
His highest speed was about 844 miles per hour and with this, he got famous all over the world. On 14th October, his heroic jump was telecasted on televisions, mobiles, and computers. In just a fall of 4 minutes, he felt claustrophobic because of his bodysuit and mask. With this, he made a world record and in 2014, this title was received by Alan Eustace.
Image Source: NASA
5. Rocket Fuel Tank
In Murcia, Spain, two shepherds noticed some strange objects in their field. Because of its size and shape, Francisco and Juan Espin Dell thought that this metal object came down from some military aircraft and so, they informed the civil guard about this. The NRBQ protocol was started to find out whether the object was bacterial, chemical, nuclear, or radiological in nature. Officers arrived on the spot to examine the object and got to know that it was a fuel tank of a rocket that had fallen from outer space.
Image Source: Wikimedia
6. Unidentified Fireballs
In September 2019, Chile observed something mysterious falling from the sky. It was like flaming fireballs that covered the whole sky in Southern Chile. These fireballs even caused fires in the bushes in seven places around Chiloe Island. People thought it was some UFOs or meteoroids but the officials stated them to be some space fragments.
Also Read: Top 10 Brightest Objects In The Solar System
7. Satellite
Anything whether a machine, planet, or Earth when sent to space for revolving around other bodies gives a thorough view and information. Crossing every kind of dust, cloud, molecule, and particle, satellite provides us with data more speedily and clearly. The initial artificial satellite sent to space was Sputnik 1 by NASA on 4 October 1957.
International Space Station is known to be the prime satellite revolving around the Earth. Among all 2500 satellites ranging around Earth, most of them move at a speed of 18000 miles per hour. Also, some natural satellites are also present in our space as Moon and the Earth.
Image Source: Ars Electronica
8. Metal Shreds
Suddenly, cities of Argentina observed an attack of metal shreds having radiant traces in February 1991. This was actually scary to see such a metallic rain that actually occurred due to Russian space station Salyut-7. It is considered to be one of the most enormous space objects to collapse on Earth. The fragments were so big that all the attempts failed. The engineers tried to move down these fragments into the Atlantic Ocean but because of low orbit, all efforts were in vain. It resulted in the fall of such metal fragments of space station weighing around 88000 pounds on the Earth.
Image Source: Wikimedia
9. Space station Skylab
NASA launched its first space station in 1973and named it the Skylab. With a weight of around 199750 pounds, Skylab was fitted with commands and service components, solar observatories, and workshops. Sent in space in 1973 in May, it came back in February 1974. NASA had a vision of keeping this satellite in space for a decade failed and in fact, Skylab had to face massive destruction because of high solar rays in the atmosphere. Ultimately on 11th July 1979 Skylab fell to pieces and was dispersed all around Western Australia and the Indian Ocean.
Image Source: NASA Johnson
10. Space Balls
An event took place in Vietnam in 2015. The people of Vietnam witnessed three balls of metal that after colliding together fell on the Earth’s surface. The people of the region called these falling metal balls space balls. After various types of research, the officials concluded these balls to be a part fallen from a Russian rocket because of some indications relating it to Russia.
Various conclusions were tried to make as these balls could be the pieces of any rocket or spacecraft from Russia which may get ineffective in reaching space and got damaged in Vietnam. Through proper information about these spaces, balls are not known but were tried fully to study them.
Also Read: Top 10 Biggest Things In The Universe
Image Source: Official SpaceX Photos
These are the 10 most strange things to fall from outer space. Kindly share and do post your comments.
