Project Loon (Photo : YouTube)
With its white large sheet covering the yard of Janet Olaffson's front yard in Chino Hills, southern California, it was easy to mistake the Google Loon Balloon for a UFO.
The 50-foot balloon landed on a palm tree. When Janet and neighbors initially approached the balloon, the police advised them not to go near it, reports CBS.
In fact, sheriff deputies of Chino Hills knocked on Janet's door to inform her of the unexpected yard intruder after they received a call from a company that it was a weather balloon, or a UFO, reports SFGate. Loon Balloon is part of Google's Project Loon.
It is a partnership between the tech giant based in Mountain View, California, and Sri Lanka. The aim of the project is to make the internet more accessible to underdeveloped area in the world. Google said that the balloon was supposed to land in a nearby area but instead landed on Janet's front yard.
Until Google confirmed it was theirs, the Loon Balloon attracted neighbors, including amateur photographers who also thought it was an alien-sent balloon.
Project Loon would have Google floating a network of balloons in the stratosphere at around 20 kilometers above the Earth's surface. It is equipped with solar panel, an electronic box and communications gear underneath which provides LTE internet connectivity on the ground below, covering a radius of 40 kilometers.
With the venture between Google and the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry, the South Asian nation is the first country in the world to have universal internet access by March 2016, covering an area of 65,610 square miles, according to Gizmag.
