The first known interstellar object crashed into Earth in 2014, recently declassified government documents confirm. A meteor crashed into the South Pacific Ocean near Papua New Guinea, and researchers studying the fall hypothesized it could be an item from a location in space outside of our immediate solar system. Now, a document released by the United States Department of Defense confirms that item was, in fact, from infinity.
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Sourcing a paper published by Harvard researchers Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb, Space Command Lieutenant General John E. Shaw confirmed in a memo earlier this month the object was not from our system. “[Space Command Chief Scientist] Dr. Joel Mozer confirmed that the velocity estimate reported to NASA is sufficiently accurate to indicate an interstellar trajectory,” Shaw wrote in the memo.
The object itself is thought to have broken up over the Pacific Ocean, potentially sprinkling interstellar debris to the aquatic floor.
“I get a kick out of just thinking about the fact that we have interstellar material that was delivered to Earth, and we know where it is,” Siraj said in a call with Vice News. “One thing that I’m going to be checking—and I’m already talking to people about—is whether it is possible to search the ocean floor off the coast of Papua New Guinea and see if we can get any fragments.”
He added, “It would be a big undertaking, but we’re going to look at it in extreme depth because the possibility of getting the first piece of interstellar material is exciting enough to check this very thoroughly and talk to all the world experts on ocean expeditions to recover meteorites.”
Siraj co-authored the study with Loeb that initially proposed the question, which the proper government channels then reviewed. The duo attempted to submit the study to The Astrophysical Journal Letters, but it wasn’t published due to data and information withheld from the government.
“Given how infrequent interstellar meteors are, extra-galactic meteors are going to be even rarer,” the astrophysicist continued. “But the fact of the matter is, going forward, we won’t find anything unless we look for it. We might as well take it upon ourselves as scientists to build a network as extensive as the U.S government’s sensor network, and use it for the purposes of science and fully use the atmosphere.”
Cover photo by Tobias Roetsch/Future Publishing via Getty Images
