Ugandan garden hit by space junk

The Earth is surrounded by space junk

By Ishbel Matheson The BBC's East Africa correspondent

Ugandan police say a mysterious object which landed in the garden of a peasant woman in central Uganda is part of a space rocket.

Initially, it was thought to be a meteorite, but further investigation revealed it to be man-made.

It was initially believed to be meteorite

Curious visitors are reported to have flocked to the site where the object landed at the end of March.

It was dusk when the unidentified object hurtled into the garden of an elderly peasant woman.

And, astonished eyewitnesses reported hearing a thunderous noise as it landed.

Pot shaped object

At first, the villagers thought it might be a bomb, but further scrutiny revealed something more mysterious. The object is spherical, like a big pot, and about a metre in diameter.

Ugandan police who removed it from the garden concluded that the object is a booster for a space rocket.

Experts say it is extremely rare for man-made space debris to fall to earth - most of it gets burnt up as it re-enters the atmosphere.

But occasionally, perhaps once or twice a year, a big chunk of it gets through. What is virtually unheard of is for it to land in someone's garden.

Tourist attraction

Sightseers have reportedly been flocking to the woman's farm. They have been trampling through the back yard of her mud house to see where the rocket fragment buried itself in the earth.

Ugandan police say the booster is now under lock and key in their stores.

They would like its owner, most likely either the American or the Russian government, to come forward and retrieve the lost property.