NASA says item found in East Texas lake is from the Columbia shuttle

NASA says an object found in an East Texas lake is from the space shuttle Columbia that broke up during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere in 2003, CNN reports.

The item, 4 feet in diameter, was found in Lake Nacogdoches near the Louisiana border.

"It's one of ours," says Lisa Malone, a spokesperson for the Kennedy Space Center, CNN reports.

She says the item is a tank that provided power and and water for the shuttle.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the object was spotted because of a drought drying up lakes.

"The lower water level has exposed a larger than normal area on the northern side of the lake," Nacogdoches Police Department Sgt. Greg Sowell told the newspaper.

Malone says the tank will be retrieved and taken to the space center where other debris from the Columbia is stored.

Seven crewmembers died when the Columbia disintegrated over Texas.

Update at 3:33 p.m. ET: The tank held cryogenic hydrogen -- super-cold and liquid -- for the shuttle's fuel cells, the Houston Chronicle's SciGuy writes in his blog.