The hollow ball was found near a village about 480 miles from the capital Windhoek. Locals had heard several small explosions a few days beforehand.

A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia. Baffled authorities have contacted NASA and the European space agency.

Space junk?

Less than 3 weeks ago, a metal object dropped from the sky and smashed through the roof of a Massachusetts business. The metal object was obviously machine made, but the FAA confirmed that it didn’t come from any airplane — leading to speculation that it’s space junk.

SEE RELATED: “Mysterious Debris Crashes Through Roof”

The hollow ball that fell from the sky in Namibia has a circumference of 43 inches (1.1 metres). It was found near a village about 480 miles (750 kilometres) from the capital Windhoek [map], according to police forensics director Paul Ludik.

What intriguing about this case is the reports of locals having heard several small explosions a few days before finding the metal ball.

It was found 18 metres from its landing spot, a hole 33 centimeters deep and 3.8 meters wide, according to a report by AFP News. With a diameter of 14 inches (35 centimeters), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of two halves welded together, according to the article.

It weighed 13 pounds (six kilograms), and was made of a “metal alloy known to man,” the police forensics director Paul Ludik said — apparently seeking to dispel any rumors that the metal ball is of extraterrestrial origin.

The sphere was discovered mid-November, but authorities first did tests before announcing the find.

Police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka concluded the sphere did not pose any danger. “It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first,” he said.

Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities told the AFP. However, Namibian authorities apparently don’t have any such record of these incidents — they learned this “in an Internet search.”

The image of the ball accompanied the AFP article. From the caption:

A photo provided by the National Forensic Science Institute shows a giant metallic ball, 1.1 metre in diameter and weighing some 6 kilograms (13 pounds), that fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia. Baffled authorities were prompted to contact NASA and the European space agency.

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Category: Space · Tags: from the sky, Namibia, space junk