In a rare incident, researchers discovered the details of the first meteorite from outside the solar system to hit Earth, according to a document recently issued by the US Space Command, confirming what was circulated by a study conducted by researchers in 2019.
The meteor, known as CNEOS 2014-01-08, landed along the northeastern coast of Papua New Guinea on January 8, 2014, according to CNN.
Scientists believe the meteorite may have left interstellar debris in the South Pacific Ocean, which, if found, could reveal more about the rocky object’s origin.
This meteor lit up the sky near Manus Island, Papua New Guinea on January 8, 2014, as it moved at more than 100,000 miles per hour, according to NASA. While scientists are likely to have drowned the ocean stellar debris.
the beginning
The story of the meteorite began when Amir Siraj, in a 2019 study he co-authored when he was a university student at Harvard University, identified the body as an interstellar meteorite, that is, from outside our solar system.
Siraj was searching with Abraham Loeb, a professor of science at Harvard University, for the ‘Oumuamua’ meteorite, the first known “interstellar” object in our solar system that was found in 2017.
Expressionism – shutterstock
He decided to go to the NASA Center for Near-Earth Object Studies database to find other interstellar objects and found what he believed to be an “interstellar” meteorite within days.
Siraj and Loeb were unable to publish their findings in a journal at the time, because their data came from NASA’s CNEOS database, which does not reveal accurate information.
But after years of trying to get the additional information needed, they received official confirmation of the meteorite from John Shaw, the deputy commander of US Space Command.
high speed
Returning to the method of discovering the meteorite, scientists initially noted its high speed, as it was moving at a speed of about 28 miles per second (45 kilometers per second) relative to the Earth, which is moving at a speed of about 18.6 miles per second (30 kilometers per second) around the sun.
He then determined the meteor’s path and found that it was in a disorderly orbit, unlike the closed orbit of other meteorites. Which means that instead of orbiting the sun like other meteorites, it came from outside the solar system.
Expressionism – shutterstock
Siraj eventually concluded that the meteor was produced by another star, expelled from that star’s planetary system, and so happened to make its way into our solar system and collided with Earth.