Mysterious metal balls fall from the sky in Gujarat, locals baffled

Mysterious metal parts "fell from the sky" in certain villages of Gujarat (Image: amarsrivastava/Twitter)

Villagers in Gujarat were baffled when giant metal balls fell from the sky on Thursday. According to an Indian Express report, the balls were found in Bhalej, Khambholaj, and Rampura.

Local police said that “the first large, black metal ball” fell from the sky in Bhalej village of Gujarat’s Anand district at around 4.45 pm on May 12. The ball weighed approximately five kilograms. After that, similar metal debris were also found in the neighbouring villages of Khambholaj and Rampura.

A report in India Today further stated that besides these three villages, black and silver metal balls were discovered in Kheda district’s Umreth and Nadiad.

Residents of Sayla village in Surendranagar district have reported that a metal ball (or more than one) fell from the sky recently. Fragments were found scattered across fields.

This could be debris from a satellite ...

Pls check @aerosurvey https://t.co/RYSIt8mKcU pic.twitter.com/yFiJ3OTqAq

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— Amarendra Srivastava (@amarsrivastava) May 16, 2022

McDowell tweeted that the debris could have originated as China’s Chang Zheng 3C serial Y86 rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.

“The third stage from the Chang Zheng 3C serial Y86 rocket, which launched the ZX-9B communications satellite in Sep 2021, reentered today sometime around 0900-1200 UTC… appears a fair match for the reentry over Gujarat at 1115 UTC May 12 from which debris has been found on the ground,” he tweeted on May 12.

CZ-3C Y86's final orbital parameters are a bit uncertain due to its highly elliptical orbit with very low (100 km or so) perigee rapidly changing due to drag. But appears a fair match for the reentry over Gujarat at 1115 UTC May 12 from which debris has been found on the ground

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) May 12, 2022

Anand district collector M Y Daxini has said that the Forensic Science Laboratory “in touch with” Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Space Application Centre (SAC) to determine if the metal parts are debris from a satellite or rocket.