The strange discovery of the remains of a SpaceX capsule on an Australian farm

When Mick Mainers, farmer from New South Wales, in the southeast Australia , saw for the first time big black object Protruding from the ground on a part of his land, he thought it was a dead tree. But upon looking at it closely and after checking by some experts, he discovered that it was something fell from space

The Australian Space Agency (ASA) He later said it came from A SpaceX capsuleBillionaire Elon Musk’s company. Specialists described the discovery as ‘weird’ and ‘too sexy’But he said such events may become more common in the near future.

The object fell on July 9 in the area, but was not discovered by farmer Mick Miners until several weeks later. Two more pieces were later found nearby, and the ASA asked anyone who found more objects to call SpaceX’s debris hotline.

Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Australian National University, was called in to examine the farm’s body.

It is often called upon to perform similar investigations, in the vast majority of which it produces pieces that are not space junk.

“It was very exciting to see all of this up close. I’ve never seen a piece of space junk fall like thisHe said in a video.

Don Polaco, professor of astrophysics at the University of Warwick in the UK, agreed It was very rare for space debris to make landfall.

He explained that as they fall from space to Earth every day, The vast majority affect the oceansbecause these cover most of the planet.

Also, the only recorded case of a person being hit was Lottie Williams, who was unharmed when a piece of junk space fell on her shoulder in Oklahoma, USA, in 1997.

Other incidents include damage to buildings in Côte d’Ivoire in 2020 by the cutting of a Chinese missile.

However, the results on the ground It may become more commonespecially because of Number of rockets sent into space It has increased significantly in recent years.

Professor Polaco added that the sun is also moving into a more active cycle, creating a spillover effect that causes more debris to fall to Earth.

Perhaps most disturbing is the study University of British Columbia Canada, Published in July, it found that there is a 10% chance that one or more people will die from space debris in the next decade.

But Professor Polaco says that Possibility Who is still infected “almost zero”. He emphasized, “I don’t think people should be afraid. The chance of hitting one of these things is very small.”

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BBC.