Remember That Metal Ring That Fell From the Sky? We Still Don’t Know Where It Came From

It’s been two weeks since a chunky metal ring crashed onto a village in Kenya, but authorities are still unable to pinpoint where it came from. The fallen object raises concern over how hard it is to trace space debris—and hold those responsible accountable.

The Kenya Space Agency (KSA) is still investigating the origin of a mysterious object that fell from the sky onto Mukuku Village in Makueni County during the early hours of Monday, December 30, 2024. As of today, however, the origin of the oval-shaped fragment remains a mystery. Although it was initially assumed that the ring was discarded space debris, there’s little evidence that ties it to a specific rocket or satellite.

The metallic ring is approximately 8 feet (2.5 meters) wide, and weighs about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms). Early assessment suggested that the object is a separation ring—a component used to connect payloads to rockets during launch, ensuring they are placed in orbit before the ring falls back to Earth. Separation rings are generally designed to burn up upon reentry through Earth’s atmosphere, or break up into smaller fragments that fall in uninhabited regions of the ocean.

In a statement posted on X, the Kenyan space agency denied rumors that the Indian Space Research Organization was responsible for the object, dismissing claims that there will be compensation to the residents of the village. “The Kenya Space Agency and relevant authorities are handling the matter to ensure a thorough and accurate assessment. We advise the public to remain cautious about such reports and await official findings,” KSA wrote on X.

Another culprit was later named, object 33155 (2008-034C), an Ariane SYLDA adapter from flight V184. The SYLDA is a hollow shell placed over one payload so that another payload can be placed on top, and this particular one launched on July 7, 2008. Following its launch, the SYLDA was left in a geostationary transfer orbit and reportedly reentered on December 30 (the same day as the ring incident), according to the Space Force’s orbital tracking unit.

Again, this is mere speculation. “Space Force ability to track objects at such very low inclinations is poor once the objects reach a low altitude orbit, which explains the lack of tracking in the final week,” Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, an expert in space tracking, wrote in a blog post. “This means we can’t really be confident about when and where it reentered, especially if Space Force’s estimate is really just an extrapolation of data from a week previously.”

The lack of evidence has prompted McDowell to question whether this object even fell from space. “It was suggested that the ring is space debris, but the evidence is marginal,” he added. “I am not fully convinced that the ring is space debris at all.”

Marco Langbroek, an astrodynamics lecturer at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, agrees that the metal ring likely did not come from an Ariane rocket’s SYLDA adaptor. That said, he does point to other evidence suggesting it is space debris. “Apart from the metal ring in the pictures, other fragments looking consistent with space debris, for example what looks like carbon wrap and isolation foil, were found several kilometers away from it,” Langbroek wrote in a blog.

The ongoing mystery over where the metallic ring came from highlights the growing risk of falling space debris, the origin of which can sometimes be hard to track. In March 2023, a two-pound cylinder-shaped object crashed through the roof of a home in Florida. The object was later identified as a fallen piece of a massive pallet of old batteries that NASA had tossed from the International Space Station in March 2021, sending it flying through Earth’s atmosphere. The family whose home was affected sued NASA for property damage. If the space debris goes unclaimed, however, then there will likely be no repercussions for whatever damage was caused.

On average, 200 to 400 human-built objects reenter through Earth’s atmosphere every year, so the chances of space junk ending up in inhabited areas is slim, but still not zero. The regulations that govern these sort of incidents are not entirely solid. The 1972 Liability Convention states that the launching country is liable to pay compensation for any damage caused by its space object, whether in orbit or on Earth. However, the convention stipulates that a company or institution is only liable for its space debris if it was negligent in some way, but it fails to define what would constitute as negligence in that case.

Things become even less clear when it comes to unclaimed pieces of debris, as evident by the mysterious ring that fell in Kenya.

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