Funny coincidence– a few days after a COPV (fuel tank) dropped from space onto Brazil, a story has surfaced that looks like exactly the same kind of object was found in Australia last year (there is a picture with the article, too).
The article claims (without cites) that it is from a US rocket launched in 1998. I’m not sure how they know that precisely, but I suppose the ground tracks of known re-entries narrowed it down. The tank was discovered in November, and the farmer who found it just started looking into the mystery, which is why the story popped up now.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
NO! NO No NO! That’s His Noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Ooooowwww what happened to him? His Noodly appendages are all….melted! It must have been one of them thar Creationists satellites.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:00 am
We were able to track down what it was based on the re-entry path because we Aussies have our own darn space program and aren’t entirely ignorant of the proceedings
March 28th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Is it just me, or does the quote from Kerrie Dougherty not make sense?
“It’s not that uncommon to find something like this, particularly in that part of southwest Queensland because there is a very large area of ground for these objects to fall on.”
Or at least, seem a pointlessly obvious thing to say (ie, the more land area you have, the more likely something will hit it)?
March 28th, 2008 at 4:52 am
You do know what this means . . .
Spaceballs, the Series!
Have there been any Mel Brooks sightings?
Ok, ok, so I’m still sleepy this morning.
March 28th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Great picture from Australia. It looks exactly like the George W. Bush plan for postwar Iraq.
March 28th, 2008 at 7:00 am
is space junk the new crop circles?
March 28th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Precursor to the Colony Drop?
March 28th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Let’s start a business selling steel made umbrellas on the internet .
March 28th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I’m sorry, Michael Lonergan, but must every single thread include a post from you regarding creationists? This topic has it’s place and time. It has it’s place on this very Web site, but you, sir, include it in everything.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Phil, you may be onto something. Here’s a report from the Tulsa World: Strange Object Hits Tulsa Woman After Bright Flash in Sky http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=19970123_Ne_a1strange
March 28th, 2008 at 9:11 am
If this guy had been a Russian farmer, he’d be suing and trying to get enough money for a new outhouse.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:18 am
These are all obvious artifact remnants from the destroyed Planet X. Don’t you people know anything.
*sheese*
March 28th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Chris,
That would be a first from what I know. (By rocket debris.)
I found this quote funny, from the raccoon hunters in Oklahoma:
“I have coon hunted for 35 years, and we are out at night all the time. I have seen a lot of things before, but we have never seen anything like this. I am just glad to find out other people have seen it,” Morris said.
So, they thought it was a plane crashing? I guess they were too busy hunting raccoons to report it?
March 28th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
My mistake. It was obviously a godless ATHEIST satellite, as the FSM is the deity of choice for a new generation. Me bad….
March 28th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
That’s three down, one more to go hurry before the deadly neurotoxin gets you.
(nudge and wink to has from the last space junk thread)
March 28th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Yeah actually it’s not space junk. It’s fabricated and I put it there. I put it there to get Phil Plait’s attention. I wanted to get his attention because I’m weird like that. He should probably be worried that someone went to all that trouble. I know I would be.
March 28th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Hi Tolls. Yes, the quote from me does sound a bit strange because, as reporters are wont to do, the guy who wrote the article mashed together different comments that I made when he interviewed me. In the first instance, I was talking about the fact that there have been a number of finds of space debris over the years in the western part of Queensland (in fact this one was the second one I’d heard about in the past five months). Then at another point, when I making some reference- I think it was to most space-junk falling into the oceans-I made a comment to the effect that, given the size of the Australian land mass one would expect that some pieces of space debris would fall on it, too.
BTW, as far as I am aware, the identification of the piece as a helium bottle probably from a 1998 Atlas II launch was made by staff of the Centre for orbital and Debris Studies at the Aerospace Corporation and United Space Alliance, so it would seem to be pretty reliable.
March 28th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Pic when the object is brand new:
http://www.aero.org/publications/crosslink/fall2006/images/08_01.jpg
Pic of object used on the crashed Columbia Shuttle:
http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/040630/040630_spacesurvey_bcol_10a.jpg.standard.jpg
March 29th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Why don’t these people get together and open up a Space Junk Museum?