A prominent meteorologist says that a bizarre metal “orb” emblazoned with a secret code and perhaps containing “valuable information inside” fell from the sky onto a tree in Veracruz, Mexico just before midnight Sunday night, creating a firestorm of intrigue on social media and in local media. The meteorologist, Isidro Cano Luna, called on the Mexican Navy to study the orb.
Luna, a television meteorologist whose catchphrase is “weather is also news” and always types in capital letters, wrote that the “metallic sphere” fell on top of a tree at 10 p.m. in Lomas del Río Medio neighborhood in Veracruz, a city of 600,000 people on the Gulf of Mexico in the southeast corner of the country. In a series of three Facebook posts, Luna speculated that it “APPEARS TO BE MADE OF A VERY HARD PLASTIC OR AN ALLOY OF VARIOUS METALS” and “APPARENTLY IT HAS AN ANTENNA.”
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[HAVE YOU SEEN THIS ORB? DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS ORB? DO YOU HAVE OTHER VALUABLE INFORMATION? Please contact me: jason.koebler@vice.com]
He said that people who saw it “falling from the sky” said it “emitted a sound, but no fire.” He speculated that it could be part of the Chinese rocket that crashed into Earth over the weekend: “PERSONAL SUGGESTION: DO NOT TOUCH IT OR GET CLOSE TO IT UNTIL IT IS REVIEWED BY SPECIALISTS…IT MAY BE RADIOACTIVE.” The story got far more interesting an hour later, in his second post:
“FOLLOWING UP ON THE METALLIC SPHERE THAT FELL ON TOP OF A TREE,” Luna wrote. “IT SHOULD NOT BE OPENED OR TRIED TO BE OPENED. A SPECIALIZED TEAM AT THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY OF MEXICO AND/OR THE SECRETARY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE NEEDS TO COLLECT IT AND TURN IT IN FOR SPECIAL STUDY.”
“ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE SPHERE THERE IS A CODE, BUT NO HOLE OR SLIT THROUGH WHICH IT COULD BE OPENED …. THESE SPHERES HAVE A TIMING MECHANISM THAT, AT A CERTAIN TIME THEY OPEN BY THEMSELVES AND SHOW THE VALUABLE INFORMATION THEY HAVE INSIDE.”
The orb has become a very popular story in Veracruz and on UFO forums, with a handful of publications covering the sighting; none has seemed to be able to track down any more information, though, as Luna said, it was a banner weekend for shit falling to Earth from space: Debris from SpaceX’s Dragon capsule hit in various parts of Australia; suspected debris from a Chinese spacecraft fell into the Indian Ocean and also in parts of Malaysia. Some have speculated that it is part of a weather balloon, part of one of these spacecrafts, or perhaps something more mundane. If you have seen this orb or know what it is, please get in touch.
Luna is seemingly well-known in Veracruz; he has 132,000 followers on Facebook and was apparently recruited last year to run for political office. He dutifully reported the weather this morning according to videos he posted on Facebook, and did not mention the orb. A low-pressure front is expected to bring storms to Veracruz this afternoon, he said.
UPDATE 3:51 pm EDT: Soon after this article was originally published, Luna posted another update on Facebook, making a “final point” on the mystery orb, which he says is “COMPOSED OF SEVEN ALLOYS.”
“THE DEVICE WAS REMOVED AT 3:15 AM BY HIGHLY TRAINED PERSONNEL WITH SPECIALIZED EQUIPMENT TAKING ALL THE PRECAUTIONS AND FOLLOWING AL THE PROTOCOLS THAT THE CASE REQUIRED,” he wrote. “THE OBJECT IS NO LONGER IN THE STATE OF VERACRUZ AND ITS FINAL DESTINATION WILL BE BEYOND OUR BORDERS … WILL THE AUTHORITIES SAY THAT THIS WAS A JOKE OR FAKE NEWS? … NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE: CLOSED.”
