A farmer in Morris, Minnesota discovered a mysterious large metallic object in his cornfield. (It’s always going to be a cornfield around here.)
That thing is large, almost 3½ meters across. We don’t know much about it, as it has already been hauled away, and unnamed federal agencies are telling us nothing. But that just means the internet is having a ball making up stories! I’ve already discovered multiple sites using the “some say” construction: some say it is a crashed alien spaceship! They never tell us who the “some” might be.
One of the more interesting videos about it is full of AI-generated slop interspersed with actual photos of Morris. It’s about 75% garbage. The debris changes shape every few seconds.
Another has a guy in a tuxedo and alien mask speculating about the “great unknown”.
I’ve never lived in a hotspot for alien conspiracies before. It’s fun, but it will fade away soon enough, especially since more credible sources have identified what it is.
About a month ago, a Chinese rocket took off from a remote spaceport in the Gobi Desert, released 10 satellites into orbit, then reignited its engine and put itself on a trajectory to rain down debris over the American Midwest.
The rocket’s flight on September 15 lasted between 75 and 80 minutes, and it came down without completing a full orbit of the Earth. Social media posts at the time showed streaks of fiery debris falling from the sky, heading north over Kansas toward Minnesota. The overnight spectacle was also visible on the western horizon from Wisconsin.
The exact time, location, and direction of the debris allowed experts to connect it to the launch of a Zhuque-2E rocket, a medium-lift vehicle built by a Chinese company called LandSpace. The rocket had launched from Dongfeng, a commercial launch zone co-located with the military-run Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, less than two hours before.
So…not aliens, but Chinese rockets crashing in an American cornfield is almost as juicy. I eagerly await the next wave of paranoia to sweep across us.
Nice bit of excitement for ya and your town there!
Great to have this blog back – phew! Been missing it & worried.
Sadly I wonder how long now before Sinophobic Conspiracists take over from the Flying Saucerists here?
Obviously it’s the relaunched Chinese spy balloon from 2023, but this time it was intercepted in space by aliens who upgraded it and commanded it to return to Earth and seek out its makers. Play some turkey song at it and it’ll leave you in peace.
Welcome back!
There’s a chapter of R V Jones’ Most Secret War in which he talks about post war worries over Russian flying bombs moving at over 2000 mph seen from Sweden and which were actually meteors seen to the east. The speeds were discrepancies in the observers’ watches in North and South Sweden. There were also a selection of objects that fell off of the things and one in particular which was shiny, grey and porous and puzzled analysts who didn’t try to test for carbon until Jones pointed out that it was a lump of coke.
Space launches cause a lot of UFO reports these days simply because of their sheer number. SpaceX launches dump fuel after one of their stages are done, creating a giant swirling thing visible if the sky is dark enough in the right place. Ariane launches can do so as well, like one seen over Eastern North America last November. Fortunately this is becoming well known enough that even many people who think there are UFOs that are alien spacecraft know better when pictures of the launch swirls are posted.
Some of the UFO crowd are still convinced Trump is going to make the big revelation.
Silly humans. It’s a Vogon construction cone.
John Fogerty knows all!
@Big Boppa: lol. Vogons.
and actually, why did the China National Space Administration drop debris over a populated area on purpose? way more unpopulated ocean to aim for…
farmers are handy folk. they could turn that into a gigantic paella pan. or a wok. or a hot tub.
The debris changes shape every few seconds.
Obvious sign of extraterrestrial (if not exodimensional) provenance.
Once it self-configures into an auto-replicating nanotech weapon, we’d all damn well better welcome our new reptilian overlords!
The diameter is roughly the same as for Atlas and Titan II rockets, so medium – size launchers have approx. the same dimensions. It is a balance between air drag (favors slim missiles) and weight (favors compact, thick missiles).
If it came down after two hours it was probably a part of the final stage, released after the satellite circularized its orbit. So at perigeum it dipped into the fringe of the atmosphere a couple of times before re-entering.
^ ^ ^ ^
Erratum. Released before the satellite circularized its orbit.
Then, it would have lost speed at the fringe of the atmodphere in a decay orbit, soon re-entering at which point the stage would have desintegrated. This thing must have travelled edge-on to get a milder heating spread over a long time. If it is made of steel, it would also have increased the chances of surviving.
I guess it was nice of them to launch after the corn was harvested.