An enormous piece of SpaceX Dragon debris seems to have fallen from the sky and touched down on a sheep farm in Australia.
According to ABC Australia, on July 9 residents in the Snowy Mountains, southern New South Wales heard a bang. It could be heard for miles and by people in Albury, Wagga Wagga, and Canberra.
When a space rocket is launched, pieces of the vehicle frequently separate from the main payload and fall back to Earth. When they contact the air, the majority of these fragments burn up. Larger fragments that survive the atmosphere typically fall into the ocean, which covers two-thirds of the planet's surface. But sometimes they do manage to crash on land.
Sheep Farm and Its Neighboring Lot
Then, on July 25, sheep farmer Mick Miners discovered a strange, burned material on his ranch, south of Jindabyne. Miners acknowledged that he did not know what to think and that he didn't know what it was.
A 10-foot-long piece of charred metal was wedged into the ground in a remote area of Miners' sheep paddock.
Miners was not the only one affected by the debris fallout. Jock Wallace, his neighbor, also discovered some peculiar debris nearby.
Wallace claimed he was not aware of the bang, although his daughters reported that it was extremely loud. The fact that the wreckage has just fallen from the sky worries him. He expressed extreme worry that the debris would cause a terrible mess if it fell on a house.
The charred debris from the space rocket had serial numbers on them that were noted by authorities.
Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist from the Australian National University College of Science, explained that The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft's trunk section is most likely where the debris came from. The wreckage may have fallen as the spacecraft reentered the Earth's atmosphere after its 2020 launch.
Read also: Why SpaceX is Sending Ants and Avocados to Space Stations Aboard Dragon
Supposedly for the Ocean
According to Tucker, the bang that was heard all over was probably caused by space debris.
Although the plane was supposed to drop in the Pacific Ocean, landing locations are not always predictable.
When a spacecraft runs out of fuel, the empty portion is discarded to reduce weight and falls to Earth.
The discovery in Jindabyne is exceptionally rare because, according to NASA, there is very little chance that space debris will strike a populated area. According to NASA, the likelihood of being struck by debris is approximately 1 in 3,200.
However, that risk is rising as a result of the rise in rocket launches. There is a one in ten chance that over the next ten years, at least one person will be hit by falling space debris resulting in death, according to research that was published in Nature Astronomy on July 11, Newsweek reports.
How About the Sheep?
Meanwhile, there are no updates about whether the debris from SpaceX Dragon caused any injuries, to either the sheep or the residents in the area.
Related article: SpaceX Rocket Fumes are Hazardous to Both Humans and the Climate: Scientists Issue Warning