Mysterious 11-foot object found in Minnesota cornfield may have fallen from space
Officials are working to identify the object, which is believed to be debris from a rocket that reentered the atmosphere weeks earlier.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket created a glowing red exhaust plume over LaPlace, Louisiana, on Oct. 13. The rocket launched from Florida carrying supplies and hardware to the International Space Station.
A fall harvest in western Minnesota turned up something far stranger than corn.
The charred object was discovered on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in a cornfield in Minnesota, located about 140 miles northwest of Minneapolis. The farmer who reported the finding said he found it while harvesting corn.
"Upon responding, deputies confirmed that a large, metallic object, approximately 11 feet in diameter, presumably a space object, was present in the cornfield," Stevens County Minnesota Sheriff's Office said.
State and federal agencies are working to identify the object, determine who owns it and arrange for its removal. Space junk can occasionally be dangerous, particularly right after it crashes down to Earth, but officials have determined that this object poses no danger to the public.
A photo of the suspected space junk discovered in Minnesota on Oct. 14, 2026. (Stevens County Minnesota Sheriff's Office)
Officials have yet to announce the origins of the likely space junk, but evidence suggests it might have been sitting in the cornfield for weeks before its discovery.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who closely tracks rocket launches and objects in space, says that it could be part of a Zhuque-2E rocket. An upper stage of the Chinese rocket reentered Earth's atmosphere on Sept. 15 above Minnesota.
Most space debris burns up while passing through Earth's atmosphere, but occasionally, pieces survive the journey and reach the ground.
One notable incident happened on March 8, 2024, when a piece of space debris crashed through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida.
NASA later confirmed that the object was a 1.6-pound metal fragment of a large object released from the International Space Station. Nobody was injured, although someone was inside the house when the debris came crashing through the roof.
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