Mystery Object From ‘Space’ Strikes United Airlines Flight Over Utah

National transport The safety board confirmed Sunday that it is investigating a plane that was struck by an object in mid-flight, on its windscreen, over Utah.

“The NTSB is collecting radar, weather, flight recorder data,” the federal agency said Social media site x. “Windscreen being sent to NTSB laboratory for testing.”

On Thursday, the strike occurred during a United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles. Photos shared on social media shows that one of the two large front windows of a 737 MAX aircraft is significantly cracked. Related images also reveal a pilot’s hand that has been cut multiple times by what appear to be tiny holes in the glass.

Object origin not confirmed

Captain of the flight allegedly The object that hit the plane was described as “space debris”. This, however, has not been confirmed.

After the impact, the plane landed safely at Salt Lake City International Airport.

Images of the strike showed that an object had made a strong impact near the upper-right part of the window, showing damage to the metal frame. Because airplane windows are multiple layers thick, with laminate in between, the window pane does not break completely. The plane was flying at 30,000 feet—probably about 36,000 feet—and the cockpit apparently maintained its cabin pressure.

So was it space debris? It’s impossible to know without more information. Very few species of birds can fly above 30,000 feet. But the highest flying bird in the world, Rupel’s vultureFound mainly in Africa. An uncontrolled weather balloon is also a possibility, although it is unclear whether the velocity would be sufficient to cause damage. Hail is also a possible culprit.

This was not the assumption a Shohei Ohtani home run ballThe only other possible cause of damage is an object from space.

That was the pilot’s initial conclusion, but a meteorite was more likely than space debris. Estimates vary, however A recent study in the journal geology It has been observed that about 17,000 meteors hit the Earth in a given year. This is at least an order of magnitude greater than the amount of man-made space debris that survives re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere.

A careful analysis of glass and metal impacted by the object should be able to reveal its origin.

This story originally appeared Ars Technica.