Authorities in Western Australia are investigating a large object that recently landed on a rural road near the town of Newman. Investigators are still inspecting the black mass, but the latest news suggests the strange object is of carbon fiber construction and meets the criteria for “space junk.” 

Mysterious space junk impacted a rural Australian road, prompting investigators to respond in HAZMAT gear

It’s appropriate that Halloween is around the corner. Not unlike Orson Welles’ 1938 radio reading of H.G. Wells’ “The World of the Worlds,” a flaming space object streaked across the sky before impacting the surface of the Earth. Fortunately, this was a chunk of smoldering carbon fiber space junk rather than hostile alien life.

Video of the initial investigation shows the large object sitting almost dead center in a rural West Australian road. Personnel from a mining site reported the baffling, still-burning object to the authorities. The West Australia Police Force, the agency responsible for investigating potentially hazardous space junk and debris for the region, responded with a HAZMAT crew.

According to a social media post by the West Australia Police Force, “Initial assessments indicate the item was made of carbon fibre and may be a composite-overwrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank, consistent with aerospace components.”

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) then ruled out that the object did not originate on a commercial aircraft, like an airliner. Aerospace experts in the country agree that the mass could be what’s left of a rocket’s fuel tank. But a part of an alien spacecraft? Not so likely. Sorry, sci-fi fans.

Now, think twice before you go fielding transcontinental phone calls. I don’t think the Australian government will let you turn space junk into weight-saving car parts. Though that would be a cool story for the times when you bore your family with stories about your new splitter.