"There was an enormous disturbance here. Some were afraid it might have something to do with that 2012 story," Mata Roma resident Max Mauro Garreto said, alluding to the supposed Mayan prediction that the world will end on December 21, 2012.
"Others said it was an alien. But I think it's a piece of a satellite that fell from space," the schoolteacher said.
Meanwhile, astrophysicist Gustavo Rojas of the Sao Carlos Federal University said that only scientific analysis will determine exactly what it is, but said that a similar piece fell on Uganda in 2002 that came from the European satellite launch rocket Ariane 4.
"It's highly probable that it's the helium tank from the Ariane 4 rocket that was launched in 1997. Its return to the atmosphere was scheduled for the morning of (February) 22, according to the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies," Rojas was cited as saying by the online news site UOL.
-AAP