- Space junk was found scattered across several fields in Australia last month.
- The debris likely came from a SpaceX Crew-1 flight, said an astrophysicist who examined the debris.
- Scientists have traced the flight path of debris from Earth.
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Australian farmers mysteriously found space debris strewn across their fields last month. An astrophysicist examining the debris now believes it is from a SpaceX flight.
People near Dalgety, New South Wales, found three large pieces of debris, with the largest – a 10-foot-tall triangular structure – found firmly embedded in the ground, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The objects were marked by burn marks consistent with atmospheric re-entry, ABC reported.
Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist who inspected the debris, said in a video that it was likely fragments of the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon aircraft used during the Crew-1 mission in 2020. Some of the fragments had serial numbers, Tucker said.
Scientists knew debris from the Dragon spacecraft debris could fall in the area around early July, and the debris was a “good match” with the trunk’s flight path on July 8, astronomer Jonathan McDowell tweeted.
“After going there and looking at the pieces myself, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is space junk,” Tucker told Space.com.
“I’m a farmer … what am I going to tell NASA?”
Sheep farmer Mick Miners discovered the 10ft object in his paddock on July 25, he told the ABC. His neighbor Jock Wallace had also found debris in his fields a week earlier, and people in the area also reported hearing a loud explosion on July 9, ABC reported.
Wallace first reported the discovery to the local civil aviation safety authority, which told him to call NASA.
“I’m a farmer from Dalgety, what am I going to tell NASA?” Wallace told the ABC.
He also said of the debris, “If it lands on your house, it’s going to make a hell of a mess.”
Debris found in Wallace’s paddock in New South Wales. Brad Tucker
The Australian Space Agency and New South Wales police are investigating the objects to confirm their link to spaceflight, the ABC reported on Monday.
“At the end of the day, SpaceX, or at least the US, is going to have to make a declaration whether or not they want to keep it or return it,” Tucker said, according to ABC.
Scientists warn about space debris
The risk of space debris falling on a person is minimal, and scientists can track larger pieces of space debris from Earth to predict where they will fall.
However, scientists are sounding the alarm about space debris, saying the problem will only get worse as space travel increases.
The news comes after debris ejected from a Chinese Long March 5B rocket returned to Earth uncontrolled on Saturday.
Its landing area consists mostly of water and deserts, making the chance of it falling on inhabited areas very low. Most of the debris burned up on re-entry, the China Manned Space Agency said, CNN reported.
Still, NASA has been critical of the approach, saying the debris “carries a significant risk of loss of life and property,” according to CNN.
It was the second time China has let debris from its massive rocket fall back to earth in an uncontrolled manner.
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