Mysterious object has wash up on a remote Australian beach, amid speculation that it could be from a 20-year-old Indian rocket that was use for launching a satellite. The canister was discover near the beach in Green Head in Western Australia (WA) about 250 kilometres north of the city of Perth on Saturday.
While, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sources confirm receipt of a formal communication from the Australian Space Agency.
So, they did not provide the details.
The bizarre-looking object has declare as a piece of space junk, while national agencies, including the Australian Space Agency (ASA), continue working to identify its origin.
The copper-colour bulky cylinder, which stands taller than a human, appears to be damage at one end and is cover with barnacles, indicating that it has spent a significant amount of time at sea before washing up.
ASA said in a series of tweets :
“We are currently making enquiries related to this object located on a beach near Jurien Bay in Western Australia. The object could be from a foreign space launch vehicle and we are liaising with global counterparts who may be able to provide more information,”.
As the origin of the object is unknown, the community should avoid handling or attempting to move the object, ASA said, adding that if the community spot any further suspect debris they should report it to local authorities and notify the agency.
ASA said :
“We are committed to the long-term sustainability of outer space activities, including debris mitigation, and continue to highlight this on the international stage,”.
In a statement, Western Australia Police said that it is believe the item is space debris and will be manage as such until it can be determine otherwise.
So, a space expert says the object could be from a 20-year-old Indian rocket.
European Space Agency engineer Andrea Boyd said experts believe the item fell from an Indian rocket launching a satellite, as per report the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Andrea Boyd said :
“We’re pretty sure based on the shape and the size, it is an upper-stage engine from an Indian rocket that’s used for a lot of different missions,”.
“Based on the amount of barnacles, it’s probably not the one from this year,”.
She said it could be 20 years old, the report said.
“But at the same time, when it gets thrown around the ocean it does tend to look older than it would normally.”
She said the engine was designed to fall off after the launch.
Andrea Boyd said :
“It takes a lot of effort to get up to orbit, so the first and second and third stage (engines) usually fall off and end up in the Indian Ocean, so it’s probably come from that with the currents and washed up on the beach,”.
Within an hour of the first media report on the unusual find, many social media users already came up with a theory the object was a piece of space junk from an Indian rocket, as per the report by Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Space experts agreed, with Australian National University astrophysicist Dr Doris Grosse and Flinders University space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman believing it was likely a fuel cylinder from the third stage of a launch by India’s space agency, it said.
Some even theorise the debris could have come from a specific mission – PSLV-CA C46 – which launch in May 2019 and drop some debris in the ocean to Australia’s north-west and south-east, the report said.
Police earlier label the object as “hazardous” as they work to identify if there was a risk to the community.
After analysis of the object, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services and the Chemistry Centre of WA found it pose no risk to the community.
But Andrea Boyd said it was important people did not touch the object.
Andrea Boyd said :
“It might still have some residual fuel and you just don’t want to get people touching that,”.
Western Australia Premier Roger Cook said the object could end up at the WA Museum.
Roger Cook said :
“I did make the observation this morning that perhaps this will be an addition to the Sky Lab pieces that we have in the museum and might add to our growing collection of space debris that seems to be collecting in WA,”.
Space debris, both man-made and natural has a habit of coming down in WA’s vast outback, although it is rare for it to be found wash up on the state’s 12,895 kilometres of coastline.
Most famously, the Skylab space station came hurtling back to Earth in 1979, with pieces of the rogue station found in the most remote of outback locations in Balladonia, north-east of Esperance in WA’s south.
The local council hit NASA with a USD 400 littering fine, which reportedly remains unpaid.
But scientists with their eyes trained on the skies have also recover fragments of space rocks which have made it through the atmosphere and slam into the ground in WA’s outback.
