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

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.
A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory is examining the debris to determine what they could be. While Indian authorities have not yet revealed what the mysterious metal balls are and how they originated, astronomer Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics theorised that they could be debris from a rocket.

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.