Copernical Team
Mystery object on Australian beach identified as part of Indian rocket
A mysterious object that washed up on an Australian beach has been identified as debris from an Indian rocket, officials said Monday.
The bulky barnacle-encrusted cylinder was first spotted in mid-July near remote Jurien Bay, a coastal region two hours' drive north of Perth in Western Australia.
Amateur sleuths speculated online that the object might have a military origin or even be linked to the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
But the Australian Space Agency said it had concluded the object was "most likely" debris from an "expended third-stage of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle".
The medium-lift launch vehicle is operated by the Indian Space Research Organization, the agency added.
The object, which measures some two meters (six feet) high and has cables dangling from the top, is being kept in storage.
Meanwhile, officials from both countries are working together to "provide further confirmation to determine next steps, including considering obligations under the United Nations space treaties", the Australian Space Agency said.
It is not the first time Australia has found itself a landing ground for space junk—last August, a sheep farmer in New South Wales found a charred chunk from one of Elon Musk's SpaceX missions jutting out of his paddock.
Beam-hopping JoeySat passes in-orbit tests
An advanced broadband satellite providing high-speed internet services that demonstrate next-generation 5G connectivity has passed its initial in-orbit tests.
The life and times of dust
Image:
This image shows the irregular galaxy NGC 6822, which was observed by the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) mounted on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. As their names suggest, NIRCam and MIRI probe different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. This allows the instruments to observe different components of the same galaxy, with MIRI especially sensitive to its gas-rich regions (the yellow swirls in this image) and NIRCam suitable for observing its densely packed field of stars.
NGC 6822 lies about 1.5 million light-years away, and is the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbour that
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Remote-sensing