Mystery as three huge steel spheres fall from sky leaving thousands terrified

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: onehuman

Didn't this happen a few years ago in maybe Spain or Italy as well? ...on the search.

Yep

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wow there's a lot of junk up there and they add more everyday. I guess our kids kids will have junk raining down all the time.

a reply to: tadaman

I dunno but they seem to survive impact relatively unscathed on a fairly regular basis. I don't know how fast they're actually going when they hit the ground. They're of course hollow (and presumably empty by then) and from what I'd read a while back, made of titanium which weighs about half as much as steel.

a reply to: SkeptiSchism

There are a couple missions planned to try to clean up some of what's up there. If they succeed, they'll launch more.

originally posted by: LightSpeedDriver
Hydrazine tanks. Harder than nails.

SNIP

This was what I was going to say/ Hydrazine sphere tanks

When the magnetic pole shift happens, everything is gonna fall out of the sky all at once!







































Just kiddin

a reply to: visitedbythem

Not true. They're all going to go flying off into space as their navigation systems suddenly tell them that Venus is Earth and they need to get their ass over where they're supposed to be.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: tadaman

I dunno but they seem to survive impact relatively unscathed on a fairly regular basis. I don't know how fast they're actually going when they hit the ground. They're of course hollow (and presumably empty by then) and from what I'd read a while back, made of titanium which weighs about half as much as steel.

just taking a guess id say they are slowed to terminal velocity before they hit the ground. u could probly drop one from 1000 feet and the impact would be no different id imagine.

a reply to: tadaman

So, a couple comments...

First, a sphere is a surprisingly strong shape, able to withstand almost unimaginable forces acting upon it.

Secondly, as others have pointed out, the sphere was likely inside another object which burned away as the assembly de-orbited, leaving the sphere to fall to earth. Once the sphere broke free from the rest of the assembly it was low enough in the atmosphere to slow down to terminal velocity due to it's relatively low mass (light weight) in comparison to its cross-sectional area. At that point it was just an object falling from the sky.

Thirdly, there very likely would have been pressure inside the sphere increasing it's relative strength even more.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I assume you were just kidding.

Actually, little would happen. Oh there would be alarms, and the satellites would freak out (for a while, many likely going into a fault status), but a relatively simple adjustment of their clocks would fix most of it. In any case, they would continue on their same relative orbits for the most part. Now, on the ground would be a far different matter!

In any case, I think the whole 'magnetic pole inversion' thing is bunk and will never actually happen, not in our lifetimes anyway. If it ever did, it wouldn't be like a light switch, and would more than likely take centuries to actually occur. It's not like everyone would wake up one day and drive the wrong way to work.

If you think about it, a spherical object is the most efficient thing that can fall through the atmosphere. They have no orientation, heat evenly, and present a large surface area to the winds. Once they reach terminal velocity, they usually make it to earth nearly intact, just a bit charred.

So ...... Where is the rest of it ?

a reply to: Meldionne1

Burned up on reentry, or landed in the water. Most of it is destroyed when it comes back down.

So .... I don't have to watch for more Falling debris ? .... That's good to know !! ....a reply to: Zaphod58

a reply to: onehuman
Space junk, at least it did not land on someones house or something, one of these days though those tanks will probably hit something or someone, besides empty land. Most likely the sea though since you know, 70% of the earth is sea and water.

They must have them on some sort of break apart trajectory away from populous areas. Or not, just as likely, ah, send them up, and they fall were they fall. But, even if they fall in at random its still not likely they will hit anything or anybody given the size of the earth, there are not that many satellites out there, and there likely to fall in the sea or none dense human population areas seeing that is the biggest landmass, ie biggest target.

But one of these days, your bound to see it on the news, the headlines reading. "space ball crashes through roof and falls feet away from man sitting on toilet" Now what are the odds of that?

That or this could be the very first signs of the invasion by space hamsters in there hi tech and nearly indestructible space hamster balls. If they slowly start rolling away after re-entry, well it may spell the end of the human race and the beginnings of the the new superior master race of space hamsters here to take over the world.

Personally I prefer my second theory on what these balls falling from space could be, it just sounds so much more fun, and I for one welcome our new hamster overloads.

Maybe parts already. Surely has tanks too.

CBS NEWS January 3, 2018, 10:24 AM
19,000-pound Chinese space station falling "uncontrolled" back to Earth

According to a November analysis by the European Space Agency (ESA), the spacecraft's orbit"will inevitably decay sometime between January and March 2018, when it will make an uncontrolled reentry." "Even a couple of days before it re-enterswe probably won't know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it's going to come down," Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told The Guardian in 2016. "Not knowing when it's going to come down translates as not knowing where its going to come down."

www.cbsnews.com...

a reply to: MteWamp

Hydrazine container is my bet.

That is what the general thought was on the last few incidents of this sort.

a reply to: 3daysgone

Don't be ridiculous - only Brasil nuts could survive re-entry. Obviously...

a reply to: horatio321

I was actually thinking 'fruitcake', but yeah.

originally posted by: TheScale

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: tadaman

I dunno but they seem to survive impact relatively unscathed on a fairly regular basis. I don't know how fast they're actually going when they hit the ground. They're of course hollow (and presumably empty by then) and from what I'd read a while back, made of titanium which weighs about half as much as steel.

just taking a guess id say they are slowed to terminal velocity before they hit the ground. u could probly drop one from 1000 feet and the impact would be no different id imagine.

Spheres are used for much more unpleasant purposes too when it comes to rockets/missiles. I'm fairly certain Zaphod knows what I'm referring to. That's all I'm prepared to say on that.

I think you're right - reentry stuff is travelling at much lower velocities compared to meteorites - typically between 7 -12 km/s (compared to 50 km/s + for naturally occurring meteors/comet fragments etc) . By the time all the flimsy stuff has burnt away, only the more substantial bits remain - like the spherical tanks - and they make their way back to earth. The last couple of minutes of the trajectory is free fall at terminal velocity. Thus, no drama, no fiery hole or scorched earth.

There have been loads of pictures of spheres popping up all over the place.

That being said - I still wouldn't want to be underneath one! :/