A large piece of space debris that washed up on a remote West Australian beach has been moved to a secret location, but its origin remains unknown.
The Australian Space Agency says the cylinder, which is about 2.5 metres high and partly made of a gold-coloured woven material, is likely a solid rocket motor casing.
The barnacle-encrusted and rusty ‘mystery object’ was found on Saturday near Green Head, about 250km north of Perth, leading to theories it could have been part of a downed airliner.
Police placed a guarded cordon around the device because of fears it could pose a public health risk, as experts worked to identify it.
“Contrary to speculation, there is no evidence to support the theory that the object is connected in any way to a commercial aircraft,” police said on Wednesday.
“After extensive consultation with state and national agencies with expertise in maritime, aviation, defence and space industries, it is believed the object is related to a rocket system.”
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The Australian Space Agency has taken over the task of identifying the equipment.
“Due to the initial assessment of the object indicating it was space industry related, and could potentially be space debris, additional precautions were taken to ensure the object posed no danger to the community,” a police spokesman said.
“All necessary measures have been taken to mitigate any potential hazards and the object is now safely contained and stored while the Australian Space Agency works to confirm its origin.”
The agency earlier said the cylinder could be part of a foreign space vehicle and it was working with international agencies in a bid to identify it.
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It has since said the object is most likely a solid rocket motor casing.
Some users of the social media site Reddit speculated the device could be Indian space junk from an LVM3-M4 rocket, as news about it was shared across the world in recent days.
The WA premier, Roger Cook, also weighed in, saying if the object the debris could find a home in a WA museum with the wreckage of Skylab that fell back to earth in the state in 1979.
Skylab was the US’s first space station. It was orbiting unmanned for just over five years before breaking up and scattering debris across the Esperance region.