Posted on 12/23/2011 12:39:17 PM PST by Red Badger
A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.
The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 metres (43 inches) was found near a village in the north of the country some 750 kilometres (480 miles) from the capital Windhoek, according to police forensics director Paul Ludik.
Locals had heard several small explosions a few days beforehand, he said.
With a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 inches), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of "two halves welded together".
It was made of a "metal alloy known to man" and weighed six kilogrammes (13 pounds), said Ludik.
It was found 18 metres from its landing spot, a hole 33 centimetres deep and 3.8 meters wide.
Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities found in an Internet search.
The sphere was discovered mid-November, but authorities first did tests before announcing the find.
Police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka concluded the sphere did not pose any danger.
"It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Guilty?..............
The Gods Must Have Metal Balls.
Carrie is NOT guilty.
One of the funniest movies I've ever seen!
It’s really Louis Farrakhan’s Mother Ship!
Mel Brooks was a visionary.
It looks like the float from a very large toilet.
Kari is her name
Was?.....
These are not the droids that you were looking for.
It has weapon’s grade plutonium in it. GI Jane is on her way to reclaim it, since our Ranger team’s evac plan went to hell.
In all seriousness, it’s probably a chinese low orbit radar target.
With all that junk flying around up there, it could be anything...................
I found this on Yahoo! News:
The Great Space Ball Mystery of ought-eleven has been solved, but it’s not an extraterrestrial probe or government doomsday device or anything cool like that. Turns out it’s only a “bladder tank.” When a mysterious crusty space ball crash-landed in Namibia in November, and calls to NASA and the European Space Agency didn’t get authorities any closer to pinning down what exactly had landed in their backyards, while Mel Brooks fans delighted in the nod in the “space ball” name and the rest and ogled the astro-nut to guess at what it is. The story has been picked up widely the last few days, but now we know what it is: Gawker’s Adrian Chen wrote about the 13-pound ball on Friday morning a commenter identified it: “For anyone wondering what it actually is, it’s likely a 39-litre hydrazine bladder tank (based on its apparent size; there are also much larger hydrazine tanks),” he wrote. “They’re used on unmanned rockets for satellite launches, which would explain why they’re falling down in such a specific geographic footprint.” We’re not sure what this is more of a testament to: the power of online crowdsourcing or the Internet’s fascination with anything with the word “balls” in it. In any case, we had our fingers crossed for doomsday device.
But yeah, I first thought “The Gods Must Have Metal Balls”, too.
With a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 inches), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of two halves welded together. Gadzooks, what in the world (or out of this world) metal is this ball made of to remain intact... 
after leaving a crater measuring 13 inches (33 cm) deep and 12.5 feet (3.8 meters) across?
If I told you, Bend, I'd have to... 
probe you.
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