NASA's UARS
This conceptual image shows the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, launched on Sept. 15, 1991, by the space shuttle Discovery. The UARS fell back to earth early Saturday. NASA says re-entry was made and it was likely in the Pacific Ocean. NASA says it may never know exactly where the satellite parts landed. NASA

An unidentified object, believed to have fallen from the sky, was found in the northeast Indian state of Meghalaya Tuesday. The mysterious object was recovered from a flower bed of St. Edmund's College in Shillong.

The object, which is now in police custody, resembles a propeller of an aircraft.

No one could tell at what time it fell, but it is a heavy metal object which on impact created a crater in the flower bed, Amit Mazumdar, a professor of St. Edmund's College, told the Nagaland Post.

We cannot really say what it is. But it is a very interesting piece, said S.K. Jain, the intelligence chief of Meghalaya police.

Speculations are rife that the metal object, weighing about 20 kg, could have been a part of NASA's defunct satellite UARS, which disintegrated into about 26 pieces while making re-entry into the earth's atmosphere Saturday.

NASA says the satellite fell into the Pacific Ocean, but no material evidence of it has been found.

We will examine the object to determine its origin. Hopefully, by tomorrow we should have some inkling of what the object could be, said S Rao, a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Rao said that there was doubt whether the defunct satellite had landed in Pacific Ocean or not. We will be able confirm the identity of the object only after examining it, he added.

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