A 90-pound chunk of space junk could be from SpaceX, one landowner said.
Mike Wootton was watching TV in the living room of his Franklin, North Carolina, home just before dusk on May 21 when he heard a thud on the roof that he thought might be a bird flying into his second-story window.
Wootton went outside to investigate and found something that “appeared to be a dead crow” lying on the grass.
To their surprise, it wasn't a bird, but an object that appeared to have fallen from space.
Wootton described the object as 15 inches long, 4 inches wide and weighing about 2 to 3 pounds. He said it resembled a car air filter with a bolt on it, only melted.
Wootton called his son-in-law to tell him about his find, and was further surprised to learn that just a few days earlier, another man in Haywood County, about 40 miles away, had found a larger, heavier piece of debris that also appeared to have fallen from space.
The man was Justin Klontz, a groundskeeper at the Glamping Collective, a luxury camping resort in the mountains of North Carolina.
Klontz, who discovered the object while mowing his lawn, said it was “kind of creepy looking.” It was also significantly larger than Wootton's remains, measuring about four feet by four feet and weighing 90 pounds. Despite its size, Klontz didn't hear it fall because the scene was so remote.
Wootton said both objects are owned by SpaceX and that he believes the smaller object may have separated from the larger one during re-entry into the atmosphere. He said he's been in contact with the Glamping Collective to see if the two pieces fit together, and if so, they plan to keep it on display.
“I just want to confirm if this is from SpaceX,” Wooten said.
Neither NASA nor SpaceX immediately responded to ABC News' requests for comment.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, shared a post on Twitter acknowledging that the debris could be from a SpaceX spacecraft that launched last August.
“This appears to be definitely part of the Crew 7 Dragon fuselage which re-entered directly above this location on Tuesday,” McDowell wrote, along with a diagram of the re-entry path passing directly above the area where the debris was found.
Meanwhile, Klontz said he is building a display case for the items, which are already part of the attraction for Glamping Collective visitors.
“We've had so many amazing experiences in the mountains, but this was something we never expected or anticipated,” said Matt Baer, owner of Glamping Collective.
Meanwhile, Wootton remains impressed that, despite all the odds, debris from space could have struck his home.
“I wish I could have that kind of luck at a casino,” Wootton said.