WT1190F, the Object That Came Home
Astronomers predicted almost to the minute when a small mystery object would fall from orbit. They never found out what it was.
What was reported
WT1190F was a small object, perhaps one or two metres across, that had been looping around the Earth in a long orbit reaching past the Moon. In October 2015 astronomers worked out that it would come down on 13 November, about 100 kilometres off the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
A team of scientists flew out on a chartered jet to watch. At the predicted time, it lit up as a bright fireball and broke apart high above the ocean.
Explanations offered
It was too light for its size to be a rock, so it was almost certainly something hollow and made by people, such as a rocket stage or a panel from a mission to the Moon. Which mission it came from was never settled.
- When
- 13 November 2015
- Where
- Fell into the sea off southern Sri Lanka
- Witnesses
- Astronomers, and observers on an aircraft over the Indian Ocean
- Status
- Never identified
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