California residents were stunned to watch a fireball of space junk shoot across the sky and fall onto a nearby ranch last week. Videos of the bizarre sight quickly
spread across social media — with many wondering what the debris was and where exactly it came from.
The owner of the ranch near Hanford spotted the big chunk of metal in his walnut orchard on Oct. 13 and alerted local authorities. Detectives with the Kings County Sheriff's Office followed several leads, including the possibility the object was related to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base several days prior. SpaceX denied the debris had anything to do with the launch.
"I am fairly certain not from us. The tanks are too short, the liner looks like different material, and it also looks like it went through an orbital reentry," a SpaceX vice president
previously told Fox 26.