Alice Gorman: The sky is filled with space junk, we need to deal with it

The mysterious object was on fire and lying in the middle of a remote dirt road in the Pilbara when mine workers stumbled upon it.

Shortly after the enigmatic item was found on October 18, WA Police announced that initial assessments indicated it was made of carbon fibre and “consistent with previously identified space debris”.

The object appears to have come from a Chinese Jielong-3 rocket — possibly the one launched in September which deployed 12 satellites in low Earth orbit.

The object’s suspected identity was corroborated by expert debris watchers, who noted the orbital path of the rocket’s fourth stage passed over WAat a time consistent with the debris’ discovery.

The Australian Space Agency told The Conversation the debris is “likely a propellant tank or pressure vessel from a s