Unknown Origin

Although it is difficult to accept, all indications point towards asteroid … being a coprolite - a piece of fossilized feces from some kind of massive life form. It appears to be almost a billion years old, and much of the fossil's original organic composition has been replaced by mineral deposits. Our scientists are baffled as to what kind of creature could have produced something like this.

Fossils from what appears to be several species of aquatic animals have been found on the barren and airless surface of …. There are indications that the surrounding asteroid belt was created from the remains of a shattered planet, and these findings seem to confirm that theory. Judging by the fossils, the planet supported life and was at least partially covered by water.

The … crew report that what first appeared to our scanners as an asteroid is in fact a gigantic, floating ball of junk. Comprised of the broken remains of various vehicles, rockets and hazardous materials (many of them radioactive), the junk ball seems to be the detritus of an unknown alien nation in the early space age.

It would appear this nation was an interstellar litterer, ejecting dangerous industrial waste into orbit rather than disposing of it planetside. Radiometric dating suggests these remains are millions of years old, and have been floating through space from an unknown point of origin for most of that time.

Science Officer … notes that some of the materials found on this floating junk heap are quite rare, and could be refined into useful resources.