MACON COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) – A North Carolina man was lucky enough to be one of the few to find some space debris in his backyard.
It looks like nothing but a bunch of melted material and metal. But take a closer look, and you’ll realize you’re looking at an object that’s out of this world, literally.
NASA confirmed that the debris is part of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
Mike Wooten in Franklin, who found the space debris, said it’s pretty cool.
“…And the odds of that are so low of it happening, so I told the other people that I wish I had that luck at the casino,” he said.
The spacecraft was built to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station and bring them back.
“I’m so glad to get all this information and finally find out what it is and connect the dots with these other folks that found it,” Wooten said.
Like Wooten, some of them, also in western North Carolina, found pieces of the spacecraft’s trunk, too.
“You can see there, one of these pieces is missing there,” he said.
Smithsonian astrophysicist Dr. Jonathan McDowell said this was the re-entry path of the Dragon’s trunk, coming in hot at 17,000 mph.
Exactly where the pieces will land something McDowell said can’t be predicted once they’ve re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.
McDowell said the trunk is supposed to melt as the debris re-enters the atmosphere, but that didn’t happen. He said it just didn’t slow down fast enough to melt all the way through as it re-entered.
That’s how it ended up on Wooten’s property, first slamming into his roof and then landing in his front yard.
“It hit right on that post over there,” he said. “It bounced off”
Wooten said he hopes this helps spread space awareness and pushes scientists to keep studying and exploring.
And if NASA or SpaceX want the piece back for research, “If they want it, I’d be glad to give it to them,” he said.
There’s no word yet if NASA has plans to request the piece from him.
Copyright 2024 WLOX via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.