The earliest confirmed interstellar object is the Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, which measures approximately 100 meters, and was followed by Borisov in 2018, which is about 0.4 to 1 kilometer. However, a few years before Oumuamua was discovered, a meteorite believed to be an interstellar object fell to Earth.
In 2014, a meteorite crashed into the ocean off the coast of Papua New Guinea that is believed to have come from outer space beyond the Solar System. The space rock is the only third known such object after Oumuamua and Borisov and the first known to exist on Earth, prompting scientists to launch an undersea expedition to find it.
US Military Confirms the Meteorite Was an Interstellar Object
Two researchers studying the Oumuamua drafted a new paper in 2019 about an extremely fast meteorite that fell to Earth in 2014 that could be an interstellar object.
The summary of the paper, which was not yet peer-reviewed, from veteran astronomer Avi Loeb and student Amir Siraj says that the high speed that the meteorite was traveling indicates that it came from the deep interior of a planetary system in the Milky Way galaxy.
According to CNET, the US Space Command released a memo to NASA's head that was shared via a Twitter post in April this year after commander Lt. General John Shaw revealed its existence during the Space Symposium in Colorado.
The memo says that the chief scientist of Space Operations Command Dr. Joel Mozer has reviewed the analysis with other data from the Department of Defense and confirmed that a meteorite is indeed an interstellar object given its interstellar trajectory.
Scientists estimate that the meteorite is relatively small, just about the size of a microwave. That means the vast majority of it most likely burned up upon entering the Earth's atmosphere and its remaining bits fell into the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
Due to this, scientists have been looking forward to searching for any remains on the ocean floor that could contain evidence of life from other star systems. He said a few years ago that the meteor entered the Solar System at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, which is a speed that can only be produced in the innermost planetary systems, which means that it could carry life from its parent planet.
Underwater Search of the Interstellar Object That Fell to Earth
Scientists named the meteorite CNEOS 2014-01-08 and believe that the interstellar object is about half a meter wide and is lost in the ocean, Universe Today reported.
All hope is not lost as the team is using the data from the satellite, as well as the wind and ocean, to give them a reasonable search area to focus on.
Moreover, they have reason to believe that the fragments of the meteorite could be magnetic. That is why Siraj and Loeb propose they use a ship with a large magnet to potentially scoop up the pieces of the meteorite from the ocean floor. They have teamed up with an ocean technology company that will help them with their mission.
Loeb told Universe Today last year that the search offers them an opportunity to find the meteorite and figure out its natural components and see whether it is a rock or something else.
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