Strong possibility that 4.5m-long object which landed in northern mining area was part of Chinese satellite

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A large metal cylinder thought to be part of a Chinese rocket has crashed in a jade mining area in Myanmar.

State media published images of the 4.5m-long (15ft) drum resting in mud on property owned by a mining company in Hpakank, in the northern state of Kachin.

Chinese writing was found on a smaller piece of debris that fell through the roof of a nearby house at the same time. No one was hurt.

Residents reported hearing an explosion as the larger barrel-shaped piece crashed to earth then bounced 50 metres across the mine’s compound before coming to rest in a waterlogged area.

“Every local thought it was the explosion of heavy artillery,” Ko Maung Myo told the Myanmar Times.

The Myanmar Times (@TheMyanmarTimes) Unidentified piece of an aircraft, believed to be an engine, falls near Hpakant jade mine | #Myanmar https://t.co/W2im1NOCdh pic.twitter.com/NFRCJiAYM5

“I think it was an engine because I found a diode and many copper wires at the tail of the body,” he said.

The state-run newspaper Global New Light said: “The metal objects are assumed to be part of a satellite or the engine parts of a plane or missile,” adding that authorities were still trying to confirm their origin.

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On Wednesday, a Chinese rocket carrying an experimental satellite took off from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre, 1,000 miles (1,600km) from Hpakank. There has been no confirmation from Beijing that the debris in Myanmar is part of a Chinese satellite.

Pictures on social media showed what appeared to be pieces of technological equipment and wiring attached to the inside of the debris.

FreeKachin (@FreeKachin) Nov 10, 5pm, attached object fell off of the sky at Tin Aung Kyaing mining lot in Hpakant Jade tract. pic.twitter.com/mdMr2fq5rD

Clemens Rumpf, a space debris researcher at Southampton University, said it was “entirely plausible” that the object was part of the Long March 11 Chinese rocket that launched on Wednesday.

“Myanmar is directly to the south of the launch site and this would put the country directly under the launch trajectory for that rocket. It is entirely plausible that the first or second stage of the rocket could have come down there,” he said. “In general, the first stage of any rocket does not make it to orbit and thus falls down somewhere downrange from the launch site.”