NASA confirms what space debris that crashed into Florida home is and where it came from

After Alejandro Otero, a resident of Naples, Florida, reported that a mysterious object crashed into his home, passing through two floors and narrowly missing his son, POT He undertook to study it to determine what it was and where it came from. The main hypothesis was that it was a piece space debris which did not disintegrate upon re-entry. However, there was no official definition.

The US space agency published its findings and confirmed this presumption. The debris in question is a rack of equipment NASA used to load old batteries from the International Space Station onto a pallet released in March 2021. The same one that returned to Earth on March 8 this year.

This confirms the original theory that this piece of space debris was associated with batteries ejected from the ISS. Let us remember that the astronomer Jonathan McDowell reported that the debris fell into the Gulf of Mexico, between Cancun and Cuba, a little further northeast than expected.

In this X (Twitter) post, Otero said that a piece of space junk fell on his house. The above said he tried to contact NASA directly but received no response. His response on social media went so viral that a North American agency contacted him.

Details about the piece of space debris that crashed into a house in Florida

Analysis of space debris by NASA revealed that the pin in question is made of a metal alloy called Inconel. Measure 10.16 cm tall and its diameter is slightly larger 4 centimeters. His weight? Some are not small 7.25 kilograms.

The US space agency has indicated that the next step will be an in-depth study of the separation and re-entry process of objects ejected by the International Space Station. In this way, we will try to determine whether the models that engineers use to analyze the decay of elements re-entering the atmosphere need to be updated.

“These models require detailed input parameters and are periodically updated when debris is found to have survived re-entry to Earth,” NASA said. The intention, apparently, is to prevent further incidents of pieces of undecayed space debris falling on populated areas.

What hasn’t been announced yet is whether NASA will compensate Otero—or if it has already done so—for the event. Once this situation became known, it was unclear who was responsible. It’s worth mentioning that JAXAThe Japanese Space Agency also took part in the maneuver. But since the Americans have confirmed that the mount is part of their equipment for charging batteries on a pallet, everything suggests that the Asians are still free from blame and blame.

The problem of space debris continues to be a major concern in the future. As we told you earlier, the likelihood of some kind of undecomposed scrap metal falling on them is higher than you imagine. According to one study, there is a 10% chance that humans will collide with a piece of space debris in the next decade. It doesn’t seem like much, but given the amount of debris in orbit, it’s not..