May 7, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

The sea washed ashore… "gravitsapu"


The cylindrical object, about 2.5 meters wide and 2.5 to 3 meters long, caused a great stir among Green Head residents.

The wreckage was initially thought to be part of MH370, the plane that went missing off the west coast of Australia in 2014 with 239 people on board. However, aviation experts soon found out that the object could not have belonged to a commercial airliner and was probably the fuel tank of a rocket that fell at some stage into the Indian Ocean.

At the time, the Australian Space Agency said it was possible that the giant cylinder had fallen from a “space launch vehicle”.

This led to speculation that the object was a PSLV fuel tank − a polar satellite launcher that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) regularly uses to launch satellites into space.

Since one of them was last used last Friday to send the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbit, this has led to speculation that it is its wreckage, despite experts saying that the object has been in the water for at least several months. Photographs showing the condition of the Gravity Cap support this argument.

Mr Somanath, who heads Isro, told the BBC there was “no mystery” about the object, confirming that it “is part of some sort of rocket”.

“It could be PSLV or whatever, and until we see and analyze it, it can’t be confirmed,” he said. The Australian authorities have not released any details yet. Mr. Somanath, among other things, stated that “some parts of the PSLV are known to have fallen into the sea outside the Australian EEZ” and said that the object “may have floated for a long time and eventually reached the coast.” He added that there was no danger from the wreckage.

However, the Australian authorities stated that considered the facility “dangerous” and police have asked people to keep a safe distance. Some experts said it may contain toxic materials.



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