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> Investigators have not said whether they believe
> the debris is space junk...

In cases like these, it's usually an airliner part.

But if that photo is legit, it sure looks like something
the decayed out of orbit and didn't burn up (but got
heated fairly severely).

Just coincidentally, in today's Columbia disaster news,
we have:

"Engineers specializing in the solid rocket boosters are
checking to see whether the debris could have broken off
from one of the boosters, the official said. They are
looking at any material that could have come loose,
including a silicone-based heat shield called
superlightweight ablator that covered two structures on
the boosters called bolt catchers.

Each bolt catcher is the size of two large stacked cans.
There is a catcher on each rocket booster near the forward
area of the external tank. They catch explosive bolts that
come loose when the rocket boosters separate from the
external tank as the shuttle shoots into orbit.

The official said NASA engineers recently determined that
the amount of loads and stresses they had thought the bolt
catchers could handle had been exceeded during their actual
uses. During manufacturing, the bolt catchers were tested
without the ablator on them.

The consequences of the bolt catchers' exceeding their load
and stress limits are unknown right now, and engineers will
have to run more tests, the official said."

I have a problem with this showing up so late, but it needs
to be investigated and ruled out.

If this is a bipod bolt, it should have re-entered with
the external tank on launch day.