- The United States Space Command (USSC) has corroborated a 2014 study by a group of astronomers, stating that government sensors did identify a meteor that originated beyond our Solar System on Earth.
- The rock is just our system’s third interstellar object, and the first to enter our atmosphere.
- Scientists may be able to learn more about the contents of this meteoric discovery if they publish their research on it.
The new discovery means that Oumuamua, a well-known interstellar object found in 2017, has now become the second interstellar object to reach our solar system.
Scientists have established that a meteor that struck Earth in January 2014 came from another solar system, making it the first known interstellar object. An interstellar object exploded spectacularly over Earth in 2014, according to recently declassified data. The event’s fireball was seen in the sky of Papua New Guinea, but further research of the event could not be completed until the data was made public.
The object, dubbed CNEOS 2014-01-08, was a tiny meteorite with a diameter of around 1.5 feet (0.45 meters) that slammed into our planet’s atmosphere on January 8, 2014. According to newly disclosed statistics, it was traveling at a speed of roughly 30,000 mph (210,000 km/h), which is much faster than most meteorites found in our solar system.
According to a 2019 research on the meteorite, the object’s extreme velocity, together with its path, proves convincingly that it came from the sun.
Testable theory
The team’s paper has been awaiting peer review for more than three years. The reason for the delay was that some of the material they utilized to reach their conclusions was classified
United States Space Command (USSC) experts have formally confirmed the team’s results now that the data is available for third-party analysis. The 2019 examination of the fireball was “sufficiently accurate to affirm an interstellar trajectory,” according to a memo released on Twitter on April 6th by Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, deputy commander of the USSC.
Amir Siraj, the lead author of the 2019 study and a theoretical astrophysicist at Harvard University, told Vice that he still plans to publish the original study so that others can continue where he and his colleagues left off. Because the meteorite erupted over the South Pacific Ocean, it’s possible that some pieces made it through and may be collected in principle.
However, identifying these shards in such a vast body of water will almost certainly be impossible.
“The prospect of recovering the first piece of interstellar material excites me enough to double-check everything and talk to all the world experts on ocean missions to recover meteorites,” Siraj said.
This is all interesting on its own, but it gets even better. The 2014 meteorite has officially been confirmed as the first interstellar object ever spotted in our solar system, according to the document. According to the USSC memo, it is three years older than Oumuamua, the now-famous cigar-shaped object that is also moving much too fast to have originated in our solar system.
Although the 2014 meteorite is extremely small, it does emphasize the possibility that our solar system is teeming with debris from other solar systems. It’s possible that other galaxies exist.
Extra-galactic meteors will be even rarer, given how rare interstellar meteors are,” Siraj warned vice. “But the fact of the matter is that we won’t find anything unless we look for it in the future.” He continued, “We might as well take it upon ourselves as scientists to establish a network as large as the US government’s sensor network and use it for study and to fully utilize the atmosphere.”
He continued, “The atmosphere is already a sensor for these substances.” “We’re simply not listening to the signs.” So we might as well take advantage of the entire atmosphere and see what happens.”
