What on earth (from earth?) is this thing?

One of my fourth grade students told me a few days ago that something fell out of the sky and burned up some of the grass in his yard. I thought, skeptically, that he was pulling my leg or just confused about some common occurance.

Then he brought the object in (along with the burned grass), each in a separate ziplock bag.

I opened the bag outside, and layed the object on a white piece of paper.

I'm wondering if you think it's from space. It's obviously man-made, but I have no idea what it is. Here's what I can tell you from observation:

1. There was definitely some burning involved.

2. Nobody saw it land, so it's possible it could be a part from a lawnmower or something, but the family says they found it smoldering in the back yard and they think it came from the sky.

3. It has absolutely no smell, which is surprising considering the amount of burning that must have occured. No sulfer smell, no burning smell. Therefore I know it's not a model rocket engine.

4. I leaves black residue on your hands (makes me wish I hadn't seen District 9 ).

5. It doesn't respond in any way to a strong magnet, so it's not steel.

6. The outer shell appears to be metal (perhaps alluminum) as it is slightly flexible. But I didn't put a lot of stress on it because I didn't want it to break. One of my students thought there might be rubber in it, but I didn't get any indication.

It appears to me that it's alluminum with a ceramic inside. There's a hole that runs through it.

Any thoughts? Thanks

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I wonder if it's part of a satellite ? Cool find...does NASA have a hotline or someone you could contact about finding it?

If the details are true than it could possibly be space "junk" from a man-made satellite. However a piece of this size would have made a very noticeable entry whether in daylight or darkness. It also would have been much larger a piece of hardware than what remains. Entry would have burnt much of it unless it was designed for severe heat tolerance.

Interesting but a tough one to validate without eyewitness accounts of the entry. Thanks for posting this for discussion.

What confused me was that there is no smell whatsoever. It should smell badly, should'n't it? Is it possible that it burned in the upper atmosphere, and with as little oxygen as there is up there that it somehow didn't produce odor? That probably sounds dumb. I don't know.

I sure wish I could figure it out. I'm going to get a better look at it this weekend and do some non-destructive tests to it.

Any suggestions on how to test it for various compounds or elements without harming it?

For instance, how does one identify non-magnetic metals?

Plus, wasn't there a big fireball in the sky last week? Maybe this is the remnants?


Or could it be a burned piece of someone's motorcycle as they cruised down the street?

Here's an image of where it "landed". The whole area is surrounded by trees. The inside of the ziplock bag is covered in carbon (or some black substance).

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Looks like part of an alien space craft to me, probably Klingon

If it was magnetic it has to have some iron in it. If there is no magnetism there is no iron, even a little bit.

rlconklin wrote in post #10052093
Looks like part of an alien space craft to me, probably Klingon

That's an absolutely ridiculous thing to say.

Klingons are currently at their annual convention, and it's not even in this galaxy.

If it fell from space for the size it looks it would have buried in the ground at a few feet . Any indentions in the ground anywhere close ?

I recall reading that reentry temperatures are around 2,500°F.

I worked as a Aerospace quality manager for a while and since aluminum melts at approx. 1,220°F. the materials you have may not be aluminum unless they were buried deep inside the satellite that came back.

However, a critical aerospace alloy called titanium (critical because it is lighter than aluminum but stronger than steel) melts at approx. 3,150°F. so this may be what you have that survived reentry.

Wow.. this is actually pretty amazing. Would love to find out what it is. Do you have a local space or astronomy center you can take it too? We have JPL (Builder of NASA stuff) out here and I hear they are pretty nice when it comes to helping out with this sort of stuff. Great find. Thanks for sharing.

Celestron's question is an important one - even if it fell from an airplane it should have made a noticeable impact where it first struck.

The metal could also be brass ...

Don

MikeFairbanks wrote in post #10051883
What confused me was that there is no smell whatsoever. It should smell badly, should'n't it? Is it possible that it burned in the upper atmosphere, and with as little oxygen as there is up there that it somehow didn't produce odor? That probably sounds dumb. I don't know.

Not necessarily. If any odor it would be an odor of charing, which if exposed to the elements for any length of time would have diminished.

Use a magnet

Yes there was! it was however in the upper Midwest and they've already recovered meteoric debris from that one in Wisconsin.

Or could it be a burned piece of someone's motorcycle as they cruised down the street?

From the looks of that there is no telling for certain what it is. It could be someones burnt trash.
If it is a piece of satellite debris, without eyewitnesses to verify a fireball entry and contact, there is only one why you will be able to know. You will have to have the experts have a look. Contact NASA JPL.

I'd contact Fox Mulder with the FBI - X-Files Division, in Washington D.C.



Seriously, interesting, nonetheless!

You live in Atlanta Ga?
Contact local TV/Radio, this is interesting and they'd help for the PR I'm sure.

Neat post, I'll watch this thread.

I looked closer at it this evening. Besides it mutating into human form, I noticed some kind of paper or paper-like lining inside. I'm beginning to think it's an earth-bound object and that the mom who found it was confused or something. However, there was burned grass.

Let's think for a minute. What would someone find in their grass that was kind of a cylindar and burned?

Heck, even if it came from aliens passing by it would be unrecognizable as anything significant.