Space Ball .... from space!?

It would appear that the internet is all a flutter tonight about the recent discovery of a "space ball" found in Namibia. According to Discovery News, the object was first discovered in late November. From the article:

Eyewitnesses reported hearing a series of explosions a few days before the extraterrestrial find. The "space ball" was consequently recovered near a village in the north of the African nation, 480 miles from the capital Windhoek.

The mystery sphere has a diameter of 35 centimeters (14 inches), a rough surface and appears to consist of "two halves welded together," police forensics director Paul Ludik told the AFP news agency.

The "Space Ball" in question (Image Courtesy of Discovery News)

More at the site.

I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but before people start shouting "Alien artifact" according to the above news article, "Ludik also described the object as being made of a "metal alloy known to man,". The article then goes a bit further to really burst everyone's bubbles. According to the author of the article, Ian O'Neill, the object is only a COPV. A  "CompositeOverwrapped Pressure Vessel" is apparently just some space junk. In order to back this up, the author puts photos up that are of confirmed COPVs. It's not terribly hard to see how similar the "Space Ball" and one of the COPVs really are.

COPV, it's not hard to draw a comparison (Image Courtesy of NASA)

Still, when I first read about this object a small part of me temporarily flashed back to something I had read in Gray Barker's The Silver Bridge. In chapter 9, entitled The Golden Ball, Barker relates a tale of another object that purportedly fell to Earth from the Heavens. On the same night that Woody Derenberger was meeting with the "alien" Indrid Cold, a town about 30 miles south of Parkersburg, West Virgina, also had UFO sightings. One of the apparent witnesses to this display, a Mr. John White, discovered an object on his lawn. Well to be more specific, his children actually discovered the object. 

Described as about 12 inches in circumference, the item seemed to be made completely of gold and was quite heavy. Although the descriptions of the objects differ, my mind immediately flashed to this item. Who knows, maybe Indrid Cold's compatriots got tired of hanging out in West Virginia and decided to check out Namibia? 

Be sure to follow the news link and decide for yourself what the provenance of the Space Ball really is!