Tourist discovers space rocket debris when snorkeling in Honduras

When Mike Irmen went snorkeling during his August trip to Honduras, he expected to discover stunning marine life, but what he ended up finding was a piece of a rocket ship.

In a now-viral Reddit post, Irmen – an aerospace engineer from Dayton, Ohio – shared what he discovered when he and his family spent one day of their vacation exploring the small islands known as the Cochino Cays Marine Sanctuary, a protected Marine Natural Monument west of Roatan. The family chose to visit Honduras after Irmen's co-workers said the scuba diving was pristine.

"We heard the snorkeling was really good right near there," he told USA TODAY. The family rented a boat, hired a guide and loaded up their snorkeling gear.

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The boat had stopped at an island approximately 200 yards long and Irmen's daughter wanted to wander around before the family jumped in the water. Irmen said the island seemed uninhabited, with only several trees and an abandoned hut. Standing from the hut, Irmen noticed a large piece of "debris on the ground."

With his background in aerospace engineering, Irmen quickly recognized the object to be made of carbon fiber. "The fastener material, the nuts and bolts and things, this is obviously something," he said. "That allowed me to go, huh, that's something aerospace-esque related."

Upon returning home, he posted photos of the debris on the subreddit r/space, "thinking it was part of a rocket."

When he woke up the next morning, Irmen realized the post had blown up. As of Tuesday afternoon, there are over 57,000 likes and around 1,400 comments. "Overall, it's been a fun experience," he said.

As seen in the photos, there's a logo on the debris that reads Arianespace, a French-founded launch company. Arianespace did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. It's possible the debris is the fairing of a rocket, which is a shell that protects the rocket during lift-off and later drops off as the rocket ascends through the atmosphere.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tourist finds space rocket debris on snorkeling trip in Honduras