- If there’s one takeaway from this story, it’s to avoid touching strange balls.
Remember Spaceballs? If that’s too old for you, it’s a 1987 sci-fi parody by Mel Brooks, featuring an evil spacefaring race called the Spaceballs.
I’m bringing the movie up because it turns out that space balls are real. But they’re not as comically heinous as in the film.
Recently, beachgoers discovered strange metallic spheres on the northeastern Australian coast. Their sudden appearance and eerie looks caused some concern among the beach bums.
Were they pieces of some classified military technology? Or perhaps remnants of an alien visit?
The truth has a bit of column A and a bit of column B. Australia’s space authorities have identified the spheres as “space balls,” or parts of the fuel system of a spacecraft that returned to Earth’s atmosphere.
They’re perfectly harmless, and Australia’s beaches aren’t in danger of imminent alien invasion. That said, the agency did caution people against poking any suspected space debris.
They Came from the Sea
The weird balls were discovered in early June along the northeastern coast of Queensland in Australia. Appearing as mysterious, almost black metallic balls, they suddenly appeared on various beaches and coastal areas.
Trevor Kyle, a local man living near Forrest Beach, was there when the first three orbs washed up.
“I wasn’t looking for them; they just jumped out of the water,” Kyle told Australia’s ABC News.
He initially believed they were buoys or parts of a boat or a ship. Nonetheless, he reported his discovery to the police, who arrived to inspect the spheres.
Then, concern started growing.
“It started to evolve as he was reporting to his superiors. You could see that it was getting bigger and bigger and there were questions of the bomb squad being involved,” recalled Kyle.
The objects could’ve been dangerous, so the authorities decided to take no risks. They set up a quarantine zone around the balls and told people to leave them alone. One crab fisherman, for example, was ordered to abandon his pot and leave the area, said Kyle.
On July 4, Queensland Fire and Rescue Department posted about the objects on social media, calling the spheres “potentially hazardous.”
“Specialist QFR Scientific teams have safely secured a number of the items throughout the weekend … A 50-meter (164 feet) exclusion zone is still in place,” the agency wrote.
‘Classic’ Space Balls
Fortunately, the oceanside residents’ anxiety didn’t last long. The Australian Space Agency (ASA) soon stepped in to explain what the balls were.
“This is a classic example of what is known as ‘space balls,’” said Flinders University associate professor Alice Gorman.
In reality, the spheres are pressurized vessels that form part of a spacecraft’s fuel system.
“Many rockets and spacecraft have liquid fuel systems that involve fuels under high pressure that are in these pressure vessels made of a robust material,” explained Gorman.
The balls are most likely remnants of a rocket system that took a spacecraft or satellite to orbit. Once detached, the rocket segments fall and burn away in the atmosphere – but not completely.
“These parts of the fuel system often survive because their melting points are higher than the temperature coming back through the atmosphere,” Gorman said.
Since they’re essentially hollow spheres, the space balls are very buoyant and can easily float ashore. As such, they’re among the most commonly discovered space debris.
At the time of writing, the ASA didn’t yet know which rocket the balls originated from, but the agency said it’s talking to its international colleagues to find out.
Don’t Touch Space Junk
Although they’re fuel containers, the space balls are empty by the time they fall back to Earth. As such, they never posed any more danger to Australian coastal dwellers than an empty Coke can.
Of course, nobody could know that just by looking at the ominous metal balls. The space agency commended the local authorities for playing things safe and keeping the public away from the spheres.
It also reminded the public that you shouldn’t go mess around with any strange spaceship parts you may stumble upon.
“Never touch, move, or recover suspected space debris and assume it to be hazardous. Move away and contact emergency services,” the ASA said.
But how are you supposed to know if the weird thing on the ground came from a spaceship? That’s where you can fall back on common sense – if it seems like something that belongs on an alien craft, call the cops.
Strange things don’t always come from space — sometimes they go up there as well. Check out our list of 8 strange objects launched into space.