A giant metal ball measuring 5 feet wide has washed up in Hamamatsu City, Japan, leaving authorities questioning its origin.
Earlier this week, authorities in Hamamatsu City were notified of the mysterious giant ball having washed up on Enshuhama beach.
After shutting off public access to the area, a bomb disposal squad was sent to investigate whether the object could be a sea mine. Upon inspection using x-ray technology, they found that the interior of the metal ball was hollow.
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The exterior of the ball appears to be orange with darker patches of brown, likely caused by rust. A raised handle on the object’s exterior produced the theory that it is a mooring buoy that came loose from a rope and floated to shore.
However, metallic buoys are not typically hollow as they are usually filled with materials that help them stay afloat.
News of the mysterious ball spread online, generating theories that the metal ball could be a “dragon ball” from the manga “Dragon Ball” or even a “Godzilla egg.”
Others speculated that the object originated from space.
While there were no signs that the unidentified object was a surveillance device dispatched by China, there were still concerns about any connections with the country amid news earlier this month of multiple Chinese spy balloons spotted around the globe, including in Japan.
A local man who frequently runs on Enshuhama beach was surprised at the sudden attention regarding the ball, claiming it had been there for a month. “I tried to push it, but it wouldn’t budge,” the man told NHK.
Masaki Matsukawa, head of the Shizuoka Prefectural Hamamatsu Civil Engineering Office’s coastal maintenance division, told NHK that the ball’s identity is still unknown.
“We have not been able to determine what kind of debris it is, but it has been confirmed that it is safe, so we will dispose of it in the same way as normal floating debris,” Matsukawa said.
The ball was scheduled to be cleared from the beach on Wednesday.
