An Israeli astronomer and his research partner have identified the first interstellar meteor known to hit Earth, the US military has confirmed.
The space rock crashed into our atmosphere off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014 and is the third object known to have visited our solar system out of solar orbit.
Avi Loeb, a Harvard astronomer from Israel, and his research partner Amir Siraj found that he came from outside our solar system in 2019, but were unable to confirm the discovery until this month. Meteors are relatively small celestial objects made of rock and metal that enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
Loeb is a well-known and controversial astronomer who claims that another interstellar visitor, an object called Oumuamua, who passed the sun in 2017, may have been created by an alien civilization.
Scientists have also identified a comet that came from another solar system, making the 2014 meteor the third known interstellar object and the first to hit Earth.
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Loeb and Siraj were skeptical when they announced the find until the U.S. military confirmed the results.
The U.S. space command, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, said its deputy commander, John E. Shaw, and chief scientist Joel Moser confirmed that “the previously discovered interstellar object is indeed an interstellar object.”
The data “confirmed that the velocity estimate reported to NASA is accurate enough to indicate an interstellar trajectory.”
Scientists from the Space Command analyzed additional data to confirm the discovery of Loeb and Siraj, and presented the results of NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Command is responsible for US military operations in space and monitors space objects that could threaten Earth.
6 / “I had the pleasure of signing a note with @ussfspoc’s chief scientist, Dr. Moser, to confirm that a previously discovered interstellar object is indeed an interstellar object, a confirmation that has helped the wider astronomical community.” Pic.twitter .com / PGliONCSrW
– US Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) April 7, 2022
NASA has challenged the space command’s confirmation of the meteor, saying that “the short duration of the data collected, less than five seconds, makes it difficult to definitively determine whether the object’s origin is indeed interstellar.”
The meteor, known as CNEOS 2014-01-08, was the size of a dishwasher and entered our atmosphere near the island of Manus in Papua New Guinea on January 8, 2014.
Siraj wrote in Scientific American this week that US government satellites designed to detect rocket launches are collecting data on the meteor.
Siraj was a Harvard student at the time of the discovery, and Loeb was his adviser. They were studying Oumuamua when they began searching for other interstellar objects and soon came across meteor data.
Perseid meteor shower, seen in Marganel, Spain, August 12, 2016 (AP Photo / Manu Fernandez)
Siraj said that dozens of such meteors hit the Earth every year, but this one travels extremely fast and comes from an unusual direction, which suggests that it comes from outside our solar system.
The meteor moved in “unbound orbit” while other meteors traveled in closed orbits as they orbited the sun.
Before hitting Earth, the meter was traveling at about 60 kilometers (37 miles) per second, much faster than other meteors.
Loeb and Siraj prepared a document for their discovery and sent it for peer-reviewed publication, but the journals refused the study, saying it relied on confidential information. Some US government data is kept secret for security reasons. The couple then said they were 99.999% confident in their conclusions.
Israeli Harvard scientist Avi Loeb. (Screenshot / YouTube)
They were later approached by a defense official who was able to receive official confirmation of the find from the Ministry of Defense.
The meteor is the third interstellar object ever observed in our solar system, after Oumuamua and a comet spotted in 2019 called Birosov, none of which hit Earth. Comets are made of ice and dust, while meteors are made of rock and metal.
Siraj said his and Loeb’s discoveries about the interstellar meteor suggest that there are many more such objects. He said his speed suggested he could come from “deep into another planetary system” near the star of that system, as opposed to the edge of another system, which was considered more likely.
Researchers are investigating whether it is possible to extract fragments of the meteor from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, calling the physical test “the holy grail of interstellar object research.” The meteor disintegrated when it entered our atmosphere.
Loeb was the longest-serving chairman of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard, a position he held from 2011-2020, and is currently a full professor of science at the university.
Related: Israeli Harvard astronomer has invariable gravity towards interstellar research
He became known to the public after saying that Oumuamua, an anomalous object outside the solar system observed to roll along the sun in 2017, may be an alien artifact.
Hawaiian astronomers only caught sight of an object they named Oumuamua, which means “scout” in Hawaiian because it moves away from the sun, moving unevenly. The strangely shaped body was the first known interstellar object seen in our solar system. It looked small, less than a mile long, dark red and shaped like a cigar or pancake.
Impression of an artist from the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua. Scientist Avi Loeb believes that this may be an alien artifact. (Courtesy of the European Southern Observatory, M. Kornmesser)
Loeb claims that Oumuamua may have been an alien artifact, such as a light canvas powered by sunlight or a communication dish. Most astronomers believe it is of natural origin, but differ on what it was or where it came from.
He launched the Galileo project last year, an initiative that will systematically look for physical artifacts produced by “alien technological civilizations.” Previous programs, such as the SETI Institute, have searched space in search of electromagnetic signals, not objects.
The Galileo project aims to identify unidentified aerial phenomena and “Oumuamua-like interstellar objects” through scientific analysis of data collected with cutting-edge instruments. The data and analytical process will be transparent and open to the public, the group said.
Siraj is now director of interstellar object research for the Galileo project, and said this week that the group had received funding to study a possible “spaceship meeting” with an interstellar object to obtain a physical sample.
Loeb is from the mosque of Beit Hanan in central Israel, served in the prestigious Talpiot Defense Forces program and received his first degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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