The first interstellar object to explode on Earth

A fireball that ignited over Papua New Guinea in 2014 was a fast-flying object from another star system, according to a recent announcement by the US Space Command (USSC).

Simulation of meteorites passing through the Earth's atmosphere.

The small meteorite with a diameter of 0.45m passed through the Earth's atmosphere on January 8, 2014 after traveling through space at a speed of more than 210,000km/h, a speed that far exceeds the average speed of meteorites in the Earth's atmosphere. Solar system, according to research in 2019 on the arXiv database, Space reported on April 12.

A 2019 study determined that the speed and flight path of the meteorite proved that the object originated outside the Solar System with a 99% probability. Maybe it came from a planetary system or a star in the thick dusty disk of the Milky Way. However, the study was not published in a scientific journal because some of the information needed to verify the calculations was classified as classified by the US government.

Now, USSC scientists officially acknowledge the research team's findings. On April 6, Lieutenant Gen. John E. Shaw, deputy commander of the USSC, said the 2019 analysis of the fireball was "accurate enough to confirm an interstellar flight path". The announcement makes the 2014 meteorite the first interstellar object discovered in the Solar System, three years earlier than 'Oumuamua, the famous cigarette-shaped object flying so fast that researchers think it arrived. from another star system.

Amir Siraj, an astrophysicist at Harvard University and lead author of the 2019 study, said he still intends to publish the findings. Due to the meteorite exploding above the South Pacific Ocean, it is possible that fragments of it fell into the water and settled on the seabed. Although finding fragments of the meteorite is nearly impossible, Siraj is consulting experts about the possibility of conducting an expedition to collect the debris.