Panic ensued in Naples, Florida, when an unidentified object “landed” on the roof of a house, pierced through it, and ended up on the ground floor, causing damage.
According to tweets by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, it was likely part of a “palette of old batteries” released by NASA from the International Space Station in 2021.
Hello. Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples.
Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors. Almost his my son.
Can you please assist with getting NASA to connect with me? I’ve left messages and emails without a response. pic.twitter.com/Yi29f3EwyV— Alejandro Otero (@Alejandro0tero) March 15, 2024
In McDowell’s post, the homeowner, Alejandro Otero, emphasized that the object, weighing about two kilograms, which entered Earth’s atmosphere, “pierced the roof with a deafening noise,” passed through two floors of his house, and “almost hit” his son.
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In an explanation provided by the scientific magazine Ars Technica regarding the trajectory of this object, it was mentioned that NASA recorded the re-entry of space debris over the Gulf of Mexico heading towards southwest Florida at 14:29 local time on that day (March 8), just five minutes before the security camera of the house recorded the impact.
NASA addressed the issue on Tuesday, stating that “the agency collected an object in collaboration with the homeowner and will analyze the object at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin. More information will be available once the analysis is complete.”
