"A piece of the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia...

...has surfaced surfaced in a dried-up lake in Texas amid a severe drought, exposing debris from the 2003 accident. The globe-shaped object that turned up in Lake Nacogdoches, north of Houston, was one of 18 tanks on Columbia that helped power the shuttle, said NASA spokeswoman Lisa Malone. The shuttle disintegrated on its way back to Earth in 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board and leaving a trail of debris that spanned several hundred miles."

Picture: AFP PHOTO / NACOGDOCHES POLICE DEPARTMENT