University of Washington research engineer Bill Beaty is set to test a piece of stone purported to have fallen from an alien spacecraft 60 years ago.

Philip Lipson and Charlette LeFevre, who run the Seattle Museum of the Mysteries, have been researching for years a story that began in June 1947 when a government employee swore he saw flying saucers three days after a Tacoma man said similar UFOs had dropped metal and lava onto his boat, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday.

"You don't want to know how complicated and bizarre this is," said LeFevre.

Lipson and LeFevre said they believe that 60 years ago a B-52 bomber crashed while carrying slag from a UFO.

They now have a black chunk of rock that may be their best clue, and Beaty will test the rock this week.

"You can tell it's been liquid because it's all full of bubbles," said Beaty. "We have to look at the bedrock in the hill and see what's there. If it looks like that, then it's probably the same."

"If this is totally different than the bedrock that's there, then this will be very interesting," he added.