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A bizarre object has been found on fire in the remote Australian Outback with no visible signs on the ground to indicate how it got there.
West Australian Police are coordinating a 'multi-agency response' after the item was found about 2pm Saturday near to a mining site - the closest civilisation is the small town of Newman about 30km away.
Staff members at the site found the object still smouldering on a rarely used access road, with authorities working on the assumption it has fallen from space.
Emergency services were quickly alerted and officials soon after blocked off the area.
Initial assessments indicate the item is made of carbon fibre and may be a composite-overwrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank.
These suspicions are consistent with aerospace components.
The object is not from a commercial aircraft, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed.
Photos shared by officials captured the item burning on red sand while several other pictures show its burnt-out husk once the fire had been extinguished.
The large black object is similar to other known space re-entry debris, WA Police said in a statement.
'Further technical assessment will be undertaken by engineers from the Australian Space Agency to assist in identifying its nature and source,' it said.
Officers are now working closely with the mine's operator as their investigation continues.
Other involved agencies include the Australian Space Agency, DFES, and other relevant stakeholders.
The WA Police Force will lead the taskforce however, as it is the state's designated Hazard Management Agency for space debris re-entry.
No further threat to public safety remains in the area and the item has now been secured.
While the nature of the object is yet to be confirmed it has sparked intrigue similar to previous UFO sightings across the country.
In 2023, a different large chunk of space debris washed ashore in WA roughly 1,000 km southwest of Newman.
The cylinder, about 2.5m high and partly made of a gold-coloured woven material, was found earlier in July near Green Head, about 250km north of Perth.
It was mostly likely from an Indian launch vehicle, the Australian Space Agency said at the time.
In 2022, Australians along the southern coast witnessed a huge fireball soaring over parts of central Victoria and northern Tasmania.
Experts said it came from the launch of a satellite for Russia's EKS satellite network which provides the Kremlin with early warnings of ballistic missile launches.
Investigations into the latest incident remain ongoing.