When a farmer in New South Wales, Australia, first saw a large black object sticking out of the ground in a remote part of his property, he thought it was a dead tree. But on closer inspection and later after checking by experts, he learned that it had fallen from space, writes the BBC.
The Australian Space Agency has confirmed that the debris is from a SpaceX capsule owned by Elon Musk. The piece of metal, believed to have fallen on July 9, was found last week on a farm in New South Wales, about five hours south-west of Sydney.
Experts called the discovery “rare” and “exciting” but said such cases could become more common.
“It was both exciting and strange to see it all up close, I’ve never seen a piece of space junk fall like that,” Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist who visited the farm, told AFP.
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The find in the field reminded him of the science fiction “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
A professor of astrophysics at Britain’s University of Warwick agreed that it is very rare for space debris to hit the ground.
“Although objects from space fall to Earth every day, the vast majority of them land in the oceans,” he said.
The piece of metal is from the Crew-1 capsule after it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere in 2021. Other space debris that may also be from the SpaceX mission has been found on neighboring properties. Because of the unusual find, the Australian Space Agency has issued an appeal for anyone who comes across other objects to contact the hotline set up by SpaceX.
Worryingly, a study published in July found that there is 10% chance that one or more people will be killed by space debris in the next decade. However, scientists say that the probability of a person getting hurt is almost zero.
The only recorded case of a person being struck to date was that of a woman who was unharmed when a piece of space debris landed on her shoulder in Oklahoma, USA, in 1997.
Other incidents include damage to buildings in Côte d’Ivoire in 2020 by fragments of a Chinese missile.
However, discoveries on land may become more frequent, especially as the number of rockets sent into space has increased significantly in recent years. The sun is also entering a cycle of greater activity, which could lead to more debris on Earth, scientists warn.
