Mysterious 8-Foot Object Washed Up on Beach Might Be Decades-Old Rocket

An odd-looking metal object that has been found washed up on a beach in Australia may be a chunk of an old rocket.

The 8-foot-wide cylinder was discovered on the shore of a beach in Green Head in Western Australia, around 150 miles north of Perth.

The Australian Space Agency is investigating the find, but some experts have suggested it might be from an Indian rocket dating back 20 years.

"We are currently making enquiries related to this object located on a beach near Jurien Bay in Western Australia," the agency tweeted on Monday. "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."

Several experts have suggested that the object may have come from an Indian rocket, because of its similarity to the third stage of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PLSV) rocket.

"When rockets are launched, the fuel tanks drop off and the fuel is expended and generally fall over the ocean, as this one did," Alice Gorman, an expert in the field of space archaeology at Flinders University, told media outlet news.com.au.

"It looks like it has been on the sea floor for some time, becoming a habitat for marine animals like barnacles. A storm probably dislodged it, allowing it to be swept to shore," she said.

Another expert, European Space Agency engineer Andrea Boyd, told ABC Australia that she suspected the same.

"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," she said. "[India] has been using them since the 90s and they've launched more than 50 missions."

Boyd suggests that the object may be up to 20 years old.

"Based on the amount of barnacles, it's probably not the one from this year," she said. "But at the same time, when it gets thrown around the ocean it does tend to look older than it would normally."

Often, pieces of rockets that are designed to be ejected end up in low-Earth orbit as space junk, eventually falling to Earth as their orbits decay because of air resistance.

"Statistically speaking, it's likely to be from earlier in the last decade, as 33 PLSVs were launched in the 2010s," Gorman said. "Space junk re-enters Earth's atmosphere every day, but generally is completely burnt up and no-one sees it…While fuel tanks are the most common part to survive because they are made of very heat-resistant materials, you don't see something this big and intact every day."

There are immense amounts of space debris orbiting the Earth dating from the dawn of our ventures into orbit onwards.

"More than 15,000 satellites have been placed in Earth orbit since the first satellite, Sputnik 1, was orbited by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. That satellite re-entered after only three months," Mark Rigby, an adjunct research fellow for the Centre of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia and past curator of the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in Brisbane, previously told Newsweek. "The number of satellites in Earth orbit has increased dramatically in recent years, due mainly to SpaceX and its Starlink communications satellites in Low Earth Orbit—now nearing 4,000."

As of June 6, the European Space Agency estimates there are about 36,500 pieces of space debris greater than 3.9 inches across, around a million pieces between 0.4 inches and 4 inches, and more than 130 million between 0.04 and 0.4 inches across.

When space junk falls to Earth, a lot of it tends to burn up because of the intense heat generated by friction with the atmosphere. The object found in Australia, however, appears to be mostly intact.

Boyd said that whoever owned the object originally should be responsible for disposing of it from the beach.

"There is a United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and they have an outer space treaty that everyone has signed saying that whoever launches something into space is responsible for it right until the very end," she said.

"The Australian Space Agency is looking into it and they are talking to our friends at the Indian Space Agency to try and collaborate on cleaning this up properly," Boyd said.

For now, the debris is not thought to pose a risk for locals, although rocket fuels can be toxic to people and it is advisable to stay away from such objects.

"In general it's better for people to avoid touching them," Gorman said. "This one was solid fuel which is generally safe unless it's actually burning."

Until the object is formally claimed, the public is being told to stay away, with local police guarding it.

"An analysis of the object by the Department of Fire and Emergency Service and Chemistry Centre of Western Australia today has determined the object is safe and there is no current risk to the community," Western Australia Police said in a statement on Monday. "This includes those who have come into contact with the object prior to it being reported to police on Sunday."

Newsweek has contacted the Australian Space Agency for comment.

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