A mysterious iron ball nearly 5 feet wide was found on a beach in Hamamatsu City, Japan, this week. Officials scrambled to ensure the giant ball was not a bomb, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK, which released video of police examining it.
There are no indications, either, that it was involved in espionage by nearby North Korea or China.
The presence of two raised handles on the sphere’s surface – indicating it can be hooked on to something else – prompted a more prosaic explanation: that it is a mooring buoy that had simply worked loose and floated off.
While the ball that appeared on the beach in Japan is not a floating balloon, it comes at a time of heightened concern over unidentified objects.
China and Japan also held security talks on Wednesday — their first in four years, according to BBC News