A burning ball of space junk has been found at a mine site in WA’s Pilbara region.

Emergency services were alerted to the scene after mine site employees located a “burning object” near a remote access road in Newman — about 455km south of Port Hedland — about 2pm on Saturday.

Police said initial assessments indicated the debris was made of carbon fibre, and could be a “composite-overwrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank, consistent with aerospace components”.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau concluded the object had not originated from a commercial aircraft.

“The object remains under investigation, though its characteristics are consistent with known space re-entry debris,” a police spokesperson said.

“Further technical assessment will be undertaken by engineers from the Austr

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