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If you’ve spent enough time at the beach over the course of your life, you’ve likely stumbled upon plenty of interesting items that have managed to end up in the sand for a variety of reasons.
Plenty of shorelines attract aspiring treasure hunters armed with the metal detectors they hope will help them find some valuable items that have ended up below the surface, and you never know when you’re going to stumble upon a massive package filled with drugs that ended up getting separated from the people tasked with trafficking them.
Now, we’ve been treated to an interesting twist in this particular lane courtesy of a mysterious object that sparked plenty of theories after it was discovered in Australia.
According to The New York Times, officials in Western Australia have deployed law enforcement officials to a beach near the tiny town of Green Head to guard a giant metal cylinder that a couple of local residents recently spotted floating near the shore before dragging it to the sand with the help of their vehicle.
The object in question is around six-and-a-half feet tall and sports a number of wires emerging from the top, and the fact that no one seems to know where it came from has obviously caused a bit of a stir in a local community where plenty of people have flocked to its location to witness it with their own eyes.
The outlet reports there was initially some speculation the cylinder could be linked with MH370, the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that’s been at the center of countless theories since it disappeared over the Indian Ocean with 239 people aboard in 2014. However, that theory was quickly debunked.
There’s also been some speculation it could be of extraterrestrial origin—but probably not the kind you’re thinking.
While there’s always a slim chance aliens are the culprit, the country’s Space Agency stated it believes the cylinder could be debris from a “foreign space launch vehicle” and has advised people to avoid coming in contact with the object until they can conduct an investigation confirming its true origins.
I think I’m just going to go with the whole “aliens” thing until proven otherwise.