A suspected space object fell through the roof of a family home in Naples, Florida, leaving various questions and damaged property in its aftermath.
Last month, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, took to X to report that an “equipment pallet” from space had reentered Earth’s atmosphere, with the hypothesis that it would likely have reached Fort Myers, Florida.
“The EP-9 equipment pallet reentered at 1929 UTC over the Gulf of Mexico between Cancun and Cuba. This was with the previous prediction window, but a little to the northeast of the ‘most likely’ part of the path. A couple of minutes later reentry and it would have reached Ft Myers,” McDowell posted on X.
Alejandro Otero, a resident of Naples, Florida (approximately 40 miles south of Fort Myers), responded to McDowell on X by sharing multiple images of damage to his home as well as a photo of the supposed space debris.
“Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples,” Otero wrote on March 15.
Otero stated that the apparent space object “tore through the roof” and went through two floors of his home, nearly hitting his son.
Otero said that he had contacted NASA but had not received a response. In a statement issued on Tuesday, NASA stated it had “collected an item in cooperation with the homeowner, and will analyze the object at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin,” saying, “More information will be available once the analysis is complete.”
