<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A flaming chunk of suspected </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/space" rel="" target="" title="space"><span>space</span></a><span> junk has crash landed in outback </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/western-australia" rel="" target="" title="Western Australia"><span>Western Australia</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Stunned workers at a Pilbara mine site found the mysterious item burning about 2pm (5pm AEDT) yesterday and alerted emergency services. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Investigators confirmed the carbon fibre waste was not from a commercial aircraft.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/louvre-museum-robbery-musee-du-louvre-closed-for-exceptional-reasons/aabe4c60-19e9-41da-930d-9763d1c095b4"><strong><span>Louvre Museum hit by robbery</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Police said it appeared to be a "composite-overwrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank, consistent with aerospace components".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The object remains under investigation, though its characteristics are consistent with known space re-entry debris," police said, in a statement</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Further technical assessment will be undertaken by engineers from the Australian Space Agency to assist in identifying its nature and source."</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/suspected-space-junk-crash-lands-on-wa-mine-site/d44e81a0-46ea-4ede-9d7a-cad4ddfd1e27" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Space agencies often drop debris into the atmosphere.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It is on purpose that this bit of rocket body has landed back, but it could just be the way that it's been tumbling that this piece was able to survive," Perth Observatory's Matt Woods said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The last time space junk landed in WA was just two years ago when an Indian rocket's tank crashed down in Green Head.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/melbourne-victoria-police-assaulted-protests-australia/1eb44402-0466-4438-8340-ee17b498562e"><strong><span>'Enough's enough': Police angry after protester clash</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/hay-arrest-man-charged-after-police-allegedly-find-estimated-6-point-3-million-worth-of-drugs-in-car/331ffa2c-9b95-4c9a-b84f-acaed8403a15" rel="" target="" title=""><strong><span>Traffic stop ends in $6.3 million arrest</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Earlier this year, parts of a Mother's Day meteor scattered over the outback.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"[The] great thing about WA is we're the second-biggest state in the world so we've got a lot of land mass that this stuff can land on," Woods said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>NASA was famously fined for littering when its defunct space station - Skylab - disintegrated over Esperance. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Australian Space Agency is still investigating the source of yesterday's discovery.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It says there's no threat to public safety.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Only one person has been hit by falling space waste and it was only the size of a soft drink can.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em></em><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the </span></strong></em><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727"><em><strong><span>Apple App Store</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span> and </span></strong></em><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU"><em><strong><span>Google Play</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>.</span></strong></em></div></div>