Look: Mystery spheres on Australian beach identified as ‘space balls’
July 6 (UPI) — Mysterious metal spheres found on a beach in Queensland, Australia, were likely pressure vessels from a space launch — also known as “space balls,” the Australian Space Agency said.
The spheres caused concern during the weekend when they were spotted in the sand in Forrest Beach, near Ingham.
The objects were initially unidentified, but were considered “potentially hazardous” by the Queensland Fire Department, which cordoned off an “exclusion zone” around the area and had the spheres examined by firefighters in hazmat gear.
An Australian Space Agency spokesperson said Monday that the objects had been recovered and identified.
“The recovered objects appear to be pressure vessels from a space launch vehicle,” the spokesperson told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “The Agency has identified the likely source — objects’ location and characteristics are consistent with debris from a foreign rocket body that recently re-entered the atmosphere from orbit.”
Officials are coordinating with international authorities to identify the source of the debris.
“Never touch, move, or recover suspected space debris and assume it to be hazardous — move away and contact emergency services,” the spokesperson said.
Alice Gorman, an associate professor at Flinders University and an expert on space junk, said the objects are commonly known as “space balls.”
“This is a classic example of what is known as ‘space balls,'” she said. “Many rockets and spacecraft have liquid fuel systems that involve fuels under high pressure that are in these pressure vessels made over robust material. These parts of the fuel system often survive because their melting points are higher than the temperature coming back through the atmosphere.”
She said the balls likely landed in the ocean and were carried ashore by tides.
“Things like these pressure vessels can be buoyant if there is no fuel in them so they are likely to wash ashore,” she said. “We are going to see more of this — more rockets means more space junk.”
