Days ago, villagers in Maharashtra saw that strange sight in the night sky. I saw something in the sky moving brightly. Meteor shower or rocket parts? There was a discussion among the people about that on the same day. However, it has been found that part of the Chinese rocket was behind the eye-popping awe seen in the night sky over the states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Debris from a ‘China rocket’ has been found in a village in Maharashtra.

Officials told local media that the large metal ring and sphere that fell from the sky may have come from a Chinese rocket launched into space last year. District Collector Ajay Gulhan told PTI that a metal ring two to three meters (6.5-10 feet) in diameter and weighing 40 kilograms (90 pounds) was found in a rural area on Saturday evening.

“We were busy preparing for a party when the sky lit up when a red disk exploded in an open space in the village,” said an unnamed woman in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district. She said people fled to their homes in fear after the blast and stayed inside for about half an hour.

Another object is a large metal sphere about half a meter (1.5 feet) in diameter. The ball landed in another village in the district. All of this has been collected for testing. The district collector said officials had been sent to all the villages in the district to find out if most of the items were scattered.

No injuries or significant damage were reported. ISRO officials said the wreckage may have been from a Chinese rocket launched in February 2021. Earlier, it was reported that part of the Chinese rocket would enter the Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday.

Some parts of the rocket survive re-entry into the atmosphere. The ISRO official said that rocket parts such as non-combustible nozzles, rings and tanks fall to the ground.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronaut at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, tweeted that the ring resembles a part of China’s Long March 3B rocket. When objects enter the atmosphere they generate large amounts of heat and friction. It will cause them to burn and shatter. But experts say large ones do not have to be completely destroyed.

In 2020, debris from another Chinese Long March rocket fell on villages in Ivory Coast. This caused significant damage in the area. But there were no injuries or deaths.

English Summary: Space debris found in potential village of Maharashtra from ‘China rocket’