Expert Says Viral 'Tentacled Meteorite' Videos Likely a Hoax and Points to Silicone-and-Solvent Trick

A UFO researcher and filmmaker told the Daily Mail that highly viewed TikTok videos showing a tentacled mass emerging from what a Panama resident said was a meteorite are likely a carefully staged hoax rather than evidence of an extraterrestrial organism.

The videos, first posted by a man identified as Kin from the Pedregal district of Panama on Aug. 29, show a small silvery object that the account owner says he recovered from a crater and then placed in a dish. Over the course of dozens of uploads, the footage appears to show a dark, oily mass of thin, black limb-like structures growing around the object and responding to light. Kin has posted 39 videos on the subject and accumulated more than 231,000 followers, with some clips reaching as many as 10.9 million views.

Mark Christopher Lee, who researches UFOs and works in film, told the Daily Mail that the material seen in the clips is consistent with Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a silicone polymer, and that the motion could be produced by soaking that material in a solvent such as hexane. Lee said PDMS swells when it absorbs hexane and then shrinks as the solvent evaporates, producing snapping or pulsing movements that can be made to look like breathing or crawling. "In short: no alien, just silicone and solvent doing their thing," Lee said.

Lee also pointed to what he described as editing and staging techniques visible in the footage. He said there is a clear jump cut in one clip that shows the object burning a leaf in one shot and then being handled bare-handed in the next, and he said an apparent crater photographed at the recovery site appears to contain matchsticks, which could indicate the hole was intentionally set on fire. Lee suggested the creator may have used common editing tools, including the CapCut app, to assemble the sequences.

Kin has repeatedly told followers he moved the object into a locked safe, kept the room dark and limited interviews as requests for comment increased. Some followers have urged caution, saying Kin should avoid media contact for his safety, while others have argued that the refusal to speak to reporters points toward fabrication. Kin posted a new video late Monday night reiterating he did not wish to be interviewed.

There has been no independent confirmation that the recovered object is a meteorite, nor has any laboratory or scientific body publicly verified the composition of the metallic object or the black material seen in the clips. Lee said that if the phenomenon were real, intelligence or public-health authorities would likely have intervened and quarantined the site quickly, but no such response has been reported.

Skeptics have noted additional inconsistencies in the videos, including how the object appears to scorch foliage but is then handled without protective equipment and the rapid growth of the mass in ways that are difficult to reconcile with biological processes. The footage has drawn widespread attention on social media but lacks corroborating physical evidence available for independent analysis.

The episode fits a pattern of sensational short-form video content that attracts rapid followings before outside experts or reporters can verify claims. Scientists who study meteorites and planetary protection have emphasized for years that genuine extraterrestrial material would be subject to stringent analysis and quarantine procedures, and they have urged caution in interpreting viral videos that lack chain-of-custody documentation or laboratory testing.

At present, the videos remain online and continue to generate discussion and speculation. Without samples subjected to peer-reviewed testing or confirmation from credible scientific institutions, claims that a new organism emerged from a meteorite remain unverified and, according to Lee, plausibly explained by commonly available materials and post-production techniques.