Space junk falls in Outback Aus! [pics]

Source: News.com.au

A piece of space debris was found by an Outback farmer. It looks like a big twisted piece of metal, looks very weird.

AN outback farmer is on a mission to identify a strange ball of twisted metal - purported to be fallen space junk - which mysteriously turned up on his remote property.

James Stirton of Cheepie, 130km from Charleville in southwestern Queensland, was heading out to feed cattle on his 40,500-hectare property when he came upon the bizarre-looking blackened ball.

“It was just off the road and I had been going up there every couple of days to feed cattle so I would be surprised if it had been there more than a week,” Mr Stirton said.

Suspecting it was a piece of space junk, Mr Stirton contacted the Aerospace Corporation - a research arm of the US Government - to get some sort of confirmation.

"I know about sheep and cattle but I don’t know much about satellites,” he said.

While a spokesman for Aerospace Corp. told NEWS.com.au it was still working to identify the object, aerospace industry sources who contacted Mr Stirton believe it to be part of a rocket launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1998.

He now believes the object is a helium tank wrapped in carbon fibre
(similar to these)
from a booster rocket used to launch communications satellites.

Mr Stirton said the ball appears to have landed partially on a tree stump, making a crater a few centimeters deep before rolling about 5m to its resting spot.

“If it hit you, you wouldn’t have gotten up,’’ he said.

“We don’t get many visitors here but anyone who has seen it has either wanted to touch it or has stood back afraid that someone was going to jump out of it.

“Everybody keeps telling me that it’s probably worth a lot of money but no one’s offered me anything for it yet."

About 200 pieces of space junk – parts of satellites and jettisoned rockets – re-enter the atmosphere each year.

Most of it disintegrates but some pieces survive the enormous heat generated on re-entry and make it to the ground.

So this is a piece of a shuttle from 1998.. Guess it's been floating around in sub-orbit since then and decided to come back down

[edit on 27-3-2008 by fennek77]

[edit on 27-3-2008 by fennek77]

Looks remarkably similar to the object that reportedly fell in Brazil in this thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Maybe related?

Originally posted by Shere Khaan
Looks remarkably similar to the object that reportedly fell in Brazil in this thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Maybe related?

Exactly what I was going to say...

I don't see how this is NOT related.

Really, what's going on up there?

Sadly I feel my question will never be fully answered...

Peace

Wow..... It looks like a capsule of some kind... The design is obviously human or alien made... and what is covering it? I'm not good with describing textures in a picture, but it looks almost like a fibrous trash bag-like material.... Good find.

TC

reply to post by Shere Khaan


They look very much alike dont they....coincidence?




[edit on 27-3-2008 by earth2]

100 % carbon-fiber... Deff space junk unless the aliens use it!

Sorry for the one liner

Two items that look almost identical fall to the ground days apart from each other.

One in Brazil, one in Australia.

That is literally halfway across the world and relatively the same latitude.

Is it possible for the second one to travel that far in such a short amount of time?

First of all pretty much anything that survives re-entry to be that big would have to be fairly large to start out with and would probably have to be quite solid. Either that or it would have to be a very highly resistent material.

Secondly I'm really scratching my head about why this thing looks so much like frayed steel cable.

My main question is this: Why is it hairy?!!??

[sorry double posted]

[edit on 27-3-2008 by The Wizard]

They sure look ugly whatever they are - glad it didnt land on my head!

The chances of 2 falling on the same day, and not buring-up in the atmosphere on re-entry is a little odd.

I hope the finders keep a sample to have independantly analyzed


[edit on 27-3-2008 by The Wizard]

As a previous poster mentioned it is carbon fiber which explains its hairy apperance. I would have thought that would have burnt up upon reentry. It's a pity we can't recycle all materials that we launch into space in space.
A penny saved is a penny earned. ~Ben Franklin

You Can Find this Here

Outback Space Oddity

this Is A Dupe Thread Please Close

reply to post by SaadAdam


It's ok, there can be a general thread in addition to a Breaking News thread.

Very interesting story, will be fascinating to see how this turns out in the end.

reply to post by niteboy82


ohh oki no problems just wondering i posted one under news oki no problems thanks anyway

Brisbane Planetarium curator Mark Rigby was asked to examine the ball-shaped item by staff at a Charleville school after the owner of a nearby farm discovered it in a field on November 7.

He said there was "no doubt" the object, named 2006-047-C, was a helium or nitrogen tank from a rocket that had probably been used to blast a US solar satellite into space more than 18 months ago.

"I looked at what had been coming down around that time and orbits and things like that and managed to narrow the time frame based on when the farmer found it.

"This particular object was predicted for re-entry (into the Earth's atmosphere) at 11.47am Australian Eastern Standard time on November 1st, which would have put it near Indonesia.

"I don't know why, but I think it has just sort of limped on a bit and ended up in Charleville."

www.brisbanetimes.com.au...
www.smh.com.au...

reply to post by internos


It never ceases to amaze me how quick and thorough you guys are....


Star old man..


'
Cheers

mungo

reply to post by fennek77

Don't touch it Jordy Verrill !!!

It mights be from outer space!!

Oh NO,... You done it now Jordy Verrill !!!

reply to post by Devino

lol very good,


i was beginning to think this was gonna be a part of that satellite the US shot down but the timeframe wouldnt work.

Maybe this is debris from another satellite that is falling apart slowly in space. But then, I think that they would have ways of checking that out. Then they would have to figure out a way of destroying that one, too, even if they didn't wish to announce it. Or maybe it was from a secret launch that blew up shortly after takeoff. Then then scurry around to pick up the pieces to keep people from knowing about it, but miss some of the pieces because the debris fell over too wide of an area. This is a possibility as well.