{"id":239845,"date":"2025-10-21T00:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T00:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/239845\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T00:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T00:52:16","slug":"burning-object-found-in-australian-desert-likely-fell-from-space-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/239845\/","title":{"rendered":"Burning Object Found in Australian Desert Likely Fell From Space : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large chunk of burning detritus discovered in the Pilbara desert of Western Australia appears to be space junk that reentered Earth’s atmosphere, the Western Australia Police Force has announced.<\/p>\n

Mine workers alerted emergency services after discovering the mystery object on October 18 on a remote access road about 30 kilometers (around 18 miles) from the mining town of Newman.<\/p>\n

A multi-agency investigation involving the police force, the Australian Space Agency, and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services is now underway.<\/p>\n

Related: Massive Space Debris Crash-Lands in Kenyan Village<\/a><\/p>\n

Although a conclusive diagnosis is yet to be made, initial investigations all point to the object as part of a spacecraft. Australian space archaeologist Alice Gorman was quoted in The Guardian speculating it may even be<\/a> “the fourth stage of a Jieling rocket” launched by China in September.<\/p>\n

\"\"The mystery object. (Western Australia Police Force)<\/p>\n

“Initial assessments suggest it’s made of carbon fiber and consistent with previously identified space debris, such as composite-overwrapped pressure vessels or rocket tanks,” the police force says<\/a> in a statement on Facebook.<\/p>\n

“The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has ruled out any connection to commercial aircraft.”<\/p>\n

Composite-overwrapped pressure vessels<\/a> are tanks used to contain high-pressure fluids in spacecraft.<\/p>\n

The recovery of space debris is a relative rarity. A variety of safeguards limit the chance that any orbiting technology will end up on the ground, including planned controlled re-entry of obsolete spacecraft and construction from materials that burn in the atmosphere<\/a> so that large pieces don’t hit the ground.<\/p>\n

In addition, Earth’s surface is mostly water, so anything large enough to reach the surface is more likely to end up in the ocean than on land.<\/p>\n

Indeed, a large piece of a spacecraft that landed in the ocean washed up on a Western Australia beach in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Western Australia Police Force)<\/p>\n

If you do find an object you suspect is space debris in Australia, the Australian Space Agency cautions you not to touch it<\/a>, since space objects can contain hazardous materials. Instead, you should contact your local emergency services, who will then assess the object and investigate its provenance.
\"Mid<\/a>
Exactly what spacecraft this particular object may have fallen from is currently unknown, but we likely won’t have to wait too long for answers.<\/p>\n

“The object has been secured, and there is no current threat to public safety,” the Western Australia Police Force says<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A large chunk of burning detritus discovered in the Pilbara desert of Western Australia appears to be space…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,1352,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-239845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-msft-content","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}