Employees at a Pilbara mine site were taken aback when they discovered a mysterious, burning object around 2pm local time (5pm AEDT) yesterday, prompting them to call emergency services for assistance.

Upon investigation, authorities confirmed that the carbon fiber material was not debris from a commercial aircraft.

Police noted that the object resembled a “composite-overwrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank,” which is typical of aerospace components.

According to a police statement, the item is still being examined, but its features align with known debris from space re-entry.

To further determine its identity and origin, engineers from the Australian Space Agency will carry out a more detailed technical analysis.

Space agencies often drop debris into the atmosphere.

“It is on purpose that this bit of rocket body has landed back, but it could just be the way that it’s been tumbling that this piece was able to survive,” Perth Observatory’s Matt Woods said.

The last time space junk landed in WA was just two years ago when an Indian rocket’s tank crashed down in Green Head.

Earlier this year, parts of a Mother’s Day meteor scattered over the outback.

“[The] great thing about WA is we’re the second-biggest state in the world so we’ve got a lot of land mass that this stuff can land on,” Woods said.

NASA was famously fined for littering when its defunct space station – Skylab – disintegrated over Esperance. 

The Australian Space Agency is still investigating the source of yesterday’s discovery.

It says there’s no threat to public safety.

Only one person has been hit by falling space waste and it was only the size of a soft drink can.