It’s kind of the nature of beaches that they are where, from time to time, the ocean will return something that humans put into it. And so if you’re the sort to talk long walks on the beach — and judging by dating profiles out there, who isn’t — you’re going to encounter some weird stuff every now and then.
But what do you do when you find something that’s so far out there you can’t just walk past, but you don’t know what it is? Well, you could do worse than turning to the internet sleuths at Reddit’s r/whatisthisthing community.
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That’s what happened with this mysterious metal sphere found on a beach in The Bahamas.
Reddit user hydrogennanoxyde put it quite simply to the community, writing merely that it was a “metal sphere with [Russian] writing found on a Bahama beach.”
Although they didn’t find it themselves, it was still a mystery worth cracking into because it’s just so unusual.
That Russian writing definitely ramps up the mystery to this object.
And it doesn’t have to be nefarious to do that. It’s just not easily translatable. Like, how do you even type it into Google Translate when your keyboard doesn’t have the same alphabet?
But it’s hard not to pick up some Cold War vibes from this thing.
A strange metal object with Russian writing engraved on it washing up on shore not far from where the Cuban Missile Crisis went down just brings that whole era right back, doesn’t it?
And when you think about it, it’s a pretty bold maneuver just to dig that thing up in the first place.
Generally speaking, strange metal orbs are probably best left on their own.
As one person in the community commented , “how could they have been so sure at the time (at any stage of the dig) that this wasn’t a naval mine or some other piece of ordnance. seems extraordinary risky to paw at this.”
For sure it does! But, as you can see from above, naval mines tend to have spikes sticking out from them, the better to detonate against a ship’s hull. So, this mysterious sphere isn’t a naval mine.
The writing on the sphere, despite being in Russian, does contain some clues to it.
Even if you don’t know what the text says, there are recognizable numbers and symbols on it — the universal language of math! If nothing else, you can make out things like temperatures and volumes on the sphere.
The other big clue is where it was found — pretty far from Russia. With those ideas firmly in mind, folks in the community surmised that this thing might have fallen out of a rocket.
How cool is that?
Yes, some Russia’s Soyuz rockets blast off from Asia, of course, but they also use the space center in French Guiana, which is in South America. So it’s mostly likely from a launch there; this sphere literally fell out of the sky as part of a booster and splashed into the ocean, to be deposited on this random beach.
But just getting this thing down to a rocket part isn’t enough for the r/whatisthisthing community, of course.
It’s not just a matter of what it is, but what it’s for.
And a couple of people theorized that it could be a hydrazine tank.
Hydrazine is nasty stuff, but it’s critical for the space program. It’s a handy propellant fuel because it doesn’t need to mix with oxygen, so it’s often used for satellite thrusters. It’s also colorless, looks and behaves much like water, and is incredibly toxic and explosive.
As aerospace engineer John McBride described , “Humans exposed to hydrazine vapor will suffer burns in the eyes, nose, mouth, esophagus, and respiratory tract. Severe burns can be fatal. Liquid hydrazine on the skin is quickly absorbed and acts as a neurotoxin. Burning hydrazine is extremely hot, but produces no visible flame (yes, it’s like invisible fire!) which can quickly spread to other combustible materials (clothes, skin, etc.).”
Which raises some new concern for the guys who dug that thing up!
However, the hydrazine theory didn’t add up with the evidence on the sphere.
As one person pointed out , “there’s a temperature on it that says -196 Celsius. Hydrazine melts at 2 Celsius.” Which means that the tank wouldn’t have stored hydrazine, but high pressure nitrogen, which boils at -196 C.
In a rocket, that sphere full of high pressure nitrogen would play a significant role, helping to pressurize fuel tanks and get the fuel pumps spinning.
So yeah, it’s a genuine rocket booster part!
And as one of the commenters mentioned , it’s not even the first time one of these things has been recovered after a launch — these were found in Peru with, again, Russian writing on them.
Who knew so much stuff could just fall out of the sky?
h/t: Reddit | hydrogennanoxyde
