In 2014, the US Space Command (USSC) confirmed in a newly released memo that an object from another galaxy had crashed to Earth. Papua New Guinea has a meteorite in the sky, in the process of which scientists believe it may have dumped interstellar debris into the South Pacific, the memo says.

In 2014, the US Space Command (USSC) confirmed in a newly released memo that an object from another galaxy had crashed to Earth. Papua New Guinea has a meteorite in the sky, in the process of which scientists believe it may have dumped interstellar debris into the South Pacific, the memo says.

This confirmation supports the smashing discovery of the first interstellar meteorite – the first interstellar object of any kind known to reach the Solar System – flagged in 2019 by a pair of studies published by Harvard researchers. Preprint server arXiv.

Amir Siraj, an astrophysics student at Harvard who led the study, said the study had been waiting for years for peer review and publication, but that the novelty of the invention and the definition of classified information involving the U.S. government stemmed from the situation.

The discovery of the meteorite, which is only a few feet wide, follows the recent discovery of two other interstellar objects in the Solar System, Comet Ohm and Comet Borisov.

Siraj, director of interstellar object research at Harvard’s Galileo program, said by phone: “It excites me to think that we have sent extraterrestrial objects to Earth and that we know where they are.

However, Siraj admits that such a discovery is unlikely because any debris from the erupting fireball may have been deposited in small numbers in different parts of the ocean, making it difficult to track: ” The probability of obtaining the first part of the interstellar material is sufficient.

Frank B., professor of science at Harvard University. Siraj is a Bird, Junior Professor, and Avi Lob, co-author of the study. Avi Loeb, a science professor at Harvard University, began his quest for a stellar atmosphere inspired by the discovery of ‘Omwamuwa’. Fireball, discovered in 2017 to be flying out of the Solar System, is an interstellar object about a quarter of a mile long. Popularly speculating that ‘Oumuamua’ was an alien technology, Loeb advised Siraj to examine the fireball and meteor strike database maintained by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

The database recorded about 1,000 shocks, but on January 8, 2014, a volcano erupted near Manus Island, catching Siraj’s eye, traveling at an extraordinary speed of 130,000 miles per hour. According to the team’s 2019 study, blasting speed indicates “perhaps from the deep interior of a planetary system or from a star in the Milky Way’s thick disk.”

“It was really fast, so I was like, ‘God, this could be an interstellar meteor,'” Siraj said. “It’s hidden in sight. That’s not to say we should dig to find this database. Moreover, an interstellar object did not appear until 2017. So there is no reason for anyone to think that there is anything outside the Solar System. Meteor.”

Siraj and Loeb submitted the findings to The Astrophysical Journal, but the study was hampered by the loss of information that the US government had blocked from the CNEOS database. Some sensors that detect fireballs are operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, which uses the same technology to monitor nuclear explosions in the sky, so Siraj and Loeb could not directly confirm the speed of the fireball.

The secret data was leaked to the media while researchers were seeking confirmation from the US government. Siraj described the multi-year process of weaving through an orbit of bureaucracy through the Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA, and other government agencies, ending at the desk of Joel Moser, NASA’s chief scientist in space operations. Command.

According to a new memo dated March 1 this year, “Moser has finally confirmed that the speed report for NASA is sufficient to indicate interstellar orbit.” Siraj, who found the results this week thanks to a tweet from a NASA scientist, is renewing his efforts to publish the original findings so that the scientific community can continue to study its impact more carefully.

For example, Siraj commented that any information about the light emitted by an object when burning in the atmosphere would provide insights into the interstellar visitor’s internal structure. In fact, according to a study published in 2007, the spectral trial of a meteorite in the galaxy – yes, a particle beyond the Milky Way could have been seen by scientists.

Although this is an incredibly small object, it suggests that the solar system may be filled with objects from other galaxies or other galaxies that could be found in future searches. Such efforts would allow people to see the world beyond the sun on Earth and possibly find real interstellar asteroids.

“Given the rare arrival of interstellar meteor visitors, additional galactic meteorites will be rare,” Siraj said. “But in the future, the truth is that we can not find anything if we do not look for it.

“The atmosphere is already a censor of these things,” he concluded. “We did not heed these signals so we could use the whole atmosphere and see what was coming our way.”