A strange event unfolded in Naples, Florida, last month. A cylindrical object came crashing through the roof of a home, leaving the homeowner shaken but fortunately unharmed.
The mystery was solved on Monday by NASA, which confirmed the object was a piece of space junk from the International Space Station (ISS). It was a metal support used to hold old batteries on a disposal pallet jettisoned from the station in 2021. While most of the pallet was expected to burn up in the atmosphere, this particular piece survived the fiery re-entry.
The object, weighing only 1.6 pounds and measuring about 4 inches tall, caused some damage to the home's roof and floor. Homeowner Alejandro Otero, who was on vacation at the time, expressed his disbelief at the incident but was grateful no one was hurt.
"It was a tremendous sound. It almost hit my son. He was two rooms over and heard it all," said Alejandro Otero.
Alejandro told WINK News he was on vacation when his son called.
"Something ripped through the house and then made a big hole on the floor and on the ceiling," said Alejandro. "When we heard that, we were like, impossible, and then immediately I thought of a meteorite."
Upon returning home sooner than expected from their journey, they discovered a cylindrical object, weighing close to two pounds, had punctured through the ceiling and ripped through the floor. Alejandro speculates it may have originated from outer space.
"It used to have a cylindrical shape, and you can tell by the shape of the top that it travelled in this direction through the atmosphere. Whatever you burned, created in this burn, and melted the metal over in this direction," said Alejandro.
Wherever it came from, it scared the Otero family.
"I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage?" Alejandro said. "I'm super grateful that nobody got hurt."
