Is it a bomb? Is it a plane crash? No, it’s space junk

An eerie whistling sound followed by a loud boom startled Kenyan villagers who were relaxing with family and friends on a recent afternoon.

“It sounded like a bombshell, I was shocked. I started looking around, also wondering if they were gunshots,” Stephen Mangoka, a 75-year-old farmer from Mukuku village in Makueni County, told the BBC.

“I looked up to the sky to see if there was smoke. Nothing.

“I ran to the road to check if there was an accident. Also nothing. Then someone told me that something had fallen from the sky.’

In fact, a massive round metal object had fallen from above, landing on farmland near a dry riverbed – and it was piping hot.

“We found a large piece of metal that was very red, so we had to wait for it to cool down before anyone could get close to it,” said Ann Kanuna, who told us she owns the land where the object fell.

The giant ring took about two hours to cool and turn gray – but it had already become a sensation with people flocking to see it.

The rest of that Monday afternoon – with few people working as it was the day before New Year’s Eve – crowds came to see the giant metal ring.

It was like a central selfie, with people coming to pose next to it and great debates about what could have been.

Local authorities in Makueni County – which is about 115 km (70 miles) southeast of the capital Nairobi – have been informed.

The Kenya Space Agency (KSA) then learned about it and made arrangements to come and investigate the next day.

But such was the object’s fame that the villagers of Mukuku feared it would be stolen overnight.

Along with local officials, some of them took turns standing guard by lighting a fire nearby. They wanted to keep out potential scrap dealers and others who wanted to make money off the curiosity.

It is said to weigh more than 500 kg (1,102 lb) – about the same as an adult horse – and is about 2.5 m (8 ft) in diameter, about the size of a child’s four-seater carousel.

With daylight came more onlookers on New Year’s Eve – followed by the KSA team and the media.

Mukuku had never seen such activity. When the site was moved out later that day by the KSA, the uproar gave way to concerns about what the villagers had among themselves.

The KSA said its preliminary assessments indicated the object was a “separation ring” from a space launch rocket.

“Such objects are usually destined to burn up when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere or fall over unoccupied areas such as the oceans,” the statement said the following day.

No one was injured when it fell, but some in Mukuku began to complain that the impact of the crash caused damage to nearby houses.

Christine Kionga, who lives about a kilometer from the crash site, showed us cracks in the concrete of some of the buildings in her home. She said they appeared after the crash.

Other neighbors claimed the structural integrity of their homes was also affected – claims that have yet to be proven.

“The government must find the owners of this site and get compensation for those affected by it,” Mukuku resident Benson Mutuku told the BBC.

There were reports in the local media that some residents had started complaining of feeling sick after being exposed to the metal ring, although there was no confirmation from those we spoke to when we visited – nor from the authorities or the KSA.

However, Mr Mutuku said there were concerns about the long-term effects of possible cosmic radiation.

“This is a space object and we’ve heard in other similar incidents that there have been radiation effects affecting even future generations and there is that fear in this community.”

However, tests later conducted by Kenya’s nuclear regulatory body revealed that while the metal ring had higher levels of radiation than the area where it was found, it was not at a level harmful to humans.

Engineers at the KSA, which was established in 2017 to promote, coordinate and regulate space-related activities in the East African nation, continue to conduct other tests to learn more about the site.

The KSA director general said it was lucky no significant damage was caused when the object fell towards Earth.

“The ultimate responsibility for any damage or injury caused by this space object rests with the country under whose jurisdiction that operator may have launched the object,” Brigadier General Hilary Kipkosgi told the BBC.

According to the Outer Space Treaty, overseen by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, “States are responsible for damage caused by their space objects.”

“(The ring) is a common element in many missiles and many space objects, so it is difficult to attribute it to a specific missile or space object, but we have traces, but as I said, our investigations are not conclusive,” said Brigadier General Kipkosgei.

The BBC showed pictures of the object to the British space agency to find out the opinion of its experts.

“The most likely object it could be is the upper stage separation ring from the Ariane rocket in 2008,” said launch manager Matt Archer.

“The satellites are fine, but the real body of the rocket has passed and gone out of orbit.”

Ariane was Europe’s primary launch vehicle, helping more than 230 satellites into orbit before it was retired in 2023.

It appears that the separation ring may have orbited Earth for 16 years before appearing unexpectedly at Mukuku.

This is not the first space junk incident to appear in East Africa.

A little over a year and a half ago, some suspected space debris fell over several villages in western Uganda.

And a few days ago, on January 8, there were unconfirmed reports of what was believed to be space debris burning brightly in the skies over northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia.

As the space industry grows, such incidents are predicted to become more common – and African governments may need to invest in ways to better detect this speeding space junk.

NASA estimates that there are more than 6,000 tons of space debris currently in orbit.

There are many different estimates of the chances of such junk hitting someone, but most are in the one in 10,000 range.

Such statistics are of little comfort to the residents of Mukuku, who can’t help but wonder what damage the ring could have caused if it had landed in the center of the village instead of on farmland.

“We need assurances from the government that this will not happen again,” Mr Mutuku said.