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LAPAN warns more space debris may fall in Sumatra
The sky is falling: Police officers and members of the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space’s (Lapan) Atmosphere and Space Monitoring Center pose with space debris that landed in Suliki, Limapuluh Kota regency, West Sumatra, on Tuesday
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span class="inline inline-center">The sky is falling: Police officers and members of the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space’s (Lapan) Atmosphere and Space Monitoring Center pose with space debris that landed in Suliki, Limapuluh Kota regency, West Sumatra, on Tuesday.(Courtesy of LAPAN’s Atmosphere and Space Monitoring Center in Agam)
Two metal objects believed to be space trash from a carrier rocket were found in West Sumatra on Tuesday, prompting the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space’s (LAPAN) local office to warn residents that more objects could fall in the province in the next few days.
The two objects fell near separate housing compounds in two regencies in West Sumatra, setting off what sounded like an explosion that shocked residents who were busy with their morning routines.
One was a 7.4-kilogram elliptical tube measuring 110 centimeters by 55 cm. The object, which has been likened to a kendi (a traditional water jug ), landed on an empty road in front of the Jorong Kubu post office in Agam regency, on the banks of Lake Maninjau at about 9:30 a.m. local time.
The second piece of space debris was a 200 cm by 50 cm metal plate weighing between 4 and 5 kg, which dropped onto a rice field at around 10 a.m. in Gunung Omeh district, Limapuluh Kota regency, some 300 meters from residential areas.
Witnesses said that an hour before the objects fell, they had heard eight to 10 explosions in the sky. No fatalities have been reported from the incidents.
Head of Agam LAPAN’s atmosphere and space observation agency, Syafrijon, said the objects could be fragments from China’s Chang Zheng-3A carrier rocket that was used to place the Beidou M1 navigation satellite into orbit on April 13, 2007. While the object found in Agam is suspected to be the rocket’s fuel tank.
If this was the case, Syafrijon said, there must be many other fragments from the same rocket, which was initially a cylinder measuring 3 meters in diameter and 5 m in length, and had a rocket motor inside.
“It [the rocket’s fuel tank] was initially big, but broke into pieces when entering the atmosphere; some of the debris could have fallen in the sea or forests,” Syafrijon told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The current solar cycle, which has relatively fewer solar activities compared to previous cycles that cause lower-density atmosphere in the low earth orbit (LEO), increases the potential of more space junk falling to earth and in bigger chunks, or even completely in tact, he said.
Syafrijon also warned residents against touching any objects that had fallen from the sky and urged them to immediately report any findings to the authorities.
LAPAN will continue to monitor such activities in space, both by using its own data and from other countries, including from NASA, and immediately inform the public should it detect space debris entering Indonesian skies.
Syafrijon added that his office would soon send the two objects to the Bandung Space Science Center for further studies.
