A man from Florida has recorded the shocking moment when space junk crashed through his house.
Alejandro Otero believes that the International Space Station (ISS) of Japan dropped a heap of space dump that 'tore through the roof and went through two floors' of his home.
He says that the pieces 'almost hit my son'.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Alejandro shared photos and videos of the damage, which showed broken roof tiles and a hole in his ceiling on Friday 8 March, 2024 at 2:34pm.
Astronomer and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell responded to Alejandro's tweets, explaining that he's been tracking the debris, which was known to be the EP-9 equipment pallet full of used batteries.
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McDowell explained: "The EP-9 equipment pallet reentered at 1929 UTC [2.29pm Florida time] over the Gulf of Mexico between Cancun and Cuba.
"This was within the previous prediction window but a little to the northeast of the 'most likely' part of the path.
"A couple minutes later reentry and it would have reached Ft Myers [Florida]."
He added: "So that's 1934 UTC, which is very consistent with the Space Force estimate of reentry over the Gulf at 1929 UTC. I think you may be right and it's a bit from the reentry of the EP-9 battery pallet."
Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi, said: "If it is a human-made space object which was launched into space by another country, which caused damage on Earth, that country would be absolutely liable to the homeowner for the damage caused."
Alejandro also told WINK news: "I was shaken.
"I was completely in disbelief – what are the chances of something landing on my house with such force, to cause so much damage?
"Obviously I’m super grateful no one got hurt."
In an update, Nasa told LADbible: "Nasa collected an item in cooperation with the homeowner, and will analyse the object at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin.
"More information will be available once the analysis is complete."
Meanwhile, for those online who were wondering 'why wouldn't they toss space junk into the sun?', McDowell explained: "It would take a ginormous rocket to get it to go into the Sun. You can't just 'toss it'."
Space Junk normally deteriorates by the time it gets to earth.
Anish Vij