Australian authorities issue warning over mysterious space balls found washed up on beach - 'Potentially hazardous'

The objects could contain extremely toxic chemicals

Half a dozen mysterious silver spheres have been found washed up on beaches in Australia, prompting an investigation by the Australian Space Agency into their origins.

The objects, which appeared as big chrome balls, were discovered near Forrest Beach in northern Queensland, roughly 80 kilometres north of Townsville over the weekend.

Authorities were first alerted on Friday afternoon following reports of the initial piece of debris washing ashore.

By Sunday, Queensland Fire Department personnel had located a total of six objects scattered across beaches in the vicinity.

The Australian Space Agency confirmed it is collaborating with police and the National Emergency Management Agency to establish the characteristics and source of the mysterious articles, believing they could be debris from space.

However, Associate Professor Alice Gorman, a space archaeologist and expert on orbital debris at Flinders University, examined news footage of the items and noted an absence of burn marks or scorching on their surfaces.

This observation led her to suggest the spheres likely originated from a rocket stage—possibly the first or second—that descended to Earth whilst the remainder of the vehicle continued its journey to deploy a payload into orbit.

"They look to be consistent with what you find as part of a fuel system.

They are pressurised fuel vessels made of titanium alloys with a very high melting point," she said.

Professor Gorman identified them as so-called "space balls", explaining these components can surface years following a launch.

However, she warned the objects might retain traces of hydrazine, an extremely toxic propellant used in rockets.

Queensland Fire Department teams in protective equipment placed the spheres into hazardous materials barrels, with police maintaining guard over the secured items due to concerns about potentially dangerous substances within.

A safety cordon extending 50 metres around the affected area remained in effect on Sunday, with the beach temporarily closed to public access.

Five of the objects had been successfully contained in drums by Sunday, whilst crews worked to make safe the sixth item.

The fire department stressed that while no immediate threat existed to the local community of approximately 2,500 residents, additional debris might appear along the coastline in the coming days.

Residents were strongly urged to avoid touching any suspicious objects they encounter, instead moving away immediately and contacting emergency services.

The discovery would not be the first time space debris has appeared on Australian shores.

Following a series of similar recoveries over recent decades, Western Australia saw fragments from the Skylab space station land in 1979, whilst a SpaceX Dragon trunk was located in New South Wales in 2022.

Last year, India's space agency confirmed a massive metal dome discovered on a Western Australian beach near Perth originated from one of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles.

A comparable spherical object was also recovered from grassland in Namibia in 2011, with specialists determining it was probably a fuel container holding hydrazine from an unmanned rocket.

Meanwhile, the local Forrest Beach Takeaway has embraced the unusual event, offering a "space junk snack box" with signage noting that customers would actually be able to identify those particular objects.