US military sensor confirms that an interstellar meteorite hit Earth

Researchers at Harvard University (USA) discovered the first meteor Coming acquaintance with someone else Solar System to reach the ground. The collision occurred in 2014 off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The interstellar origin of the orb was recently confirmed by a document issued by the US Space Command.

6/ “I had the pleasure of signing a memorandum with Tweet embedSenior scientist Dr. Mozer, to confirm that the previously discovered stellar object was indeed an interstellar object, an assertion that helped the broader astronomical community. ” pic.twitter.com/PGlIonCSrW

– US Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) April 7, 2022

Despite the latest confirmation, the hypothesis was launched by astrophysicists Amir Siraj and Abraham Loeb in a 2019 study. The named Oumuamua meteorite caught the duo’s attention in 2017 for its long, cigar-like shape. They found it while combing through the NASA Center for Near-Earth Object Studies database, and they were the first to suggest that space rocks had moved from outside our solar system.

Illustration of the astral object أوmuamuasource: ESO

The meteor hit the atmosphere at a speed of more than 210,000 km / h, which would not be possible for any object traveling within our solar system. This interpretation was initially rejected by Astrophysical Journal Letters when the authors attempted to submit the paper, because the velocity data were deemed insufficient. The magazine is one of the most relevant in the region.

It was data stored by the US government, and later released to astronomers, which confirmed that the velocity estimate was “accurate enough to indicate an interstellar path”. This data comes from high-tech sensors used by US military forces to track potential nuclear activities.

Now, astronomers plan to publish the original study and plan to search for possible fragments of the meteorite that may have fallen to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where the celestial body exploded — a task that would have been nearly impossible.