The "alien-esque" looking metallic ball that fell from the sky and was discovered mid-November in a remote grassland in Namibia is not so mysterious after all.

According to Namibian authorities, which had earlier reported the matter to NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), experts are already pretty sure that the object is, in astronaut jargon, a ‘Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel' (COPV), based on the striking similarity between the Namibian sphere and those found in other countries like Australia and Brazil.

These hollow balls are used by various space agencies to safely store pressurized gases, according to authorities. COPV's are typically made of highly durable materials like carbon fiber or Kevlar-which explains how they survive reentry.

The large metallic ball was made of a "metal alloy known to man", has a circumference of 43 inches and a diameter of 14 inches, and weighs about 13 lbs. Authorities of the north African country say that the ball has a roughly textured surface and appears to have been welded together from two separate halves.

Earlier, Namibia's police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka stated that the object did not pose any danger. "It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first," he said.

Namibia's police forensics director Paul Ludik reported that the hollow sphere was found 18 meters from its landing spot near a village in the north of Namibia some 750 kilometers from the capital Windhoek.

According to researchers, several such balls have been found in Southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past 20 years.