Space debris hits Vietnam, again
Another spherical object apparently from outer space was found in northern Vietnam on January 13, ten days after three similar “space balls” hit the same area.
Ma Van Thang, a buffalo herder in Chiem Hoa Dist., Tuyen Quang Province, discovered the object near a stream on January 13 evening.
Nguyen Hong Ha, an official of Chiem Hoa, said it was “a sphere that resembles those found earlier,” he said.
News website Zing quoted another local official, Ma Dinh Luong, as saying that the object weighed 41 kg and measured about 70 cm (27.5 in.) in diameter.
Three other ball-shaped objects were found at separate locations in Tuyen Quang and the adjacent province of Yen Bai early on January 2.
Many locals said they heard "thunder-like noises" before that.
Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, Vice Chief of Staff of the Vietnamese army, said last week that concerned agencies of the defense ministry concluded that the objects were propellant tanks of a certain "flying device," possibly a rocket.
The website spaceflight 101.com last week confirmed that the objects were debris crash landed when the spent second stage of a Rusian-Ukrainian Zenit rocket re-entered over Southeast Asia.
Even though the space debris didn't cause any damage, they posed a grave threat to aviation safety, Tuan said.
According to him, the defense ministry will report the incidents to the national civil aviation safety organization.
According to NASA, more than 500,000 pieces of space debris are orbiting Earth, with bits of space junk falling to Earth every year.