US military sensor confirms interstellar meteor hit Earth

This text was corrected at 9:30 am on 22/04/22.

Researchers at Harvard University (USA) discovered the first. meteor acquaintance from someone else solar system To reach Earth. The collision occurred in 2014 off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The interstellar origin of the celestial body was recently confirmed by a document from the United States Space Command.

6/ “I had the pleasure of signing a note with him. @ussfspocChief Scientist Dr. A confirmation that helps the broader astronomical community to confirm that an interstellar object previously detected is indeed an interstellar object, Mozer said. pic.twitter.com/PGlIOnCSrW

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

Although recently confirmed, the hypothesis was published in a 2019 study by astrophysicists Amir Siraj and Abraham Loeb. Interstellar space rock ‘Oumuamua, with its long, cigar-like shape, caught the duo’s attention in 2017. They found it while scanning the database of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies and were the first to suggest that space rock travels from outside our Solar System.

The meteor hit the atmosphere at over 210,000 km/s, which would not have been possible for any object traveling in our Solar System. This comment was initially rejected by the Astrophysical Journal Letters, as velocity data were considered insufficient when the authors attempted to submit the paper. The journal is one of the most relevant journals in this field.

This was data stored by the US government and later made available to astronomers, confirming that the velocity estimate was “accurate enough to indicate an interstellar orbit.” This data comes from high-tech sensors used by US military forces to monitor potential nuclear activity.

Now, astronomers plan to publish the original work and search for possible fragments of the meteorite that may have crashed into the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where the celestial body exploded – a task that may be close to impossible.

* An earlier version of the text ‘Oumuamua a meteor. It is fair to say that it is an interstellar space rock or an interstellar object. The text has already been changed.