The U.S. Space Command announced this week that it has determined that a 2014 meteor strike that hit Earth is outside the solar system. The meteor passed into the sky off the coast of Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, three years earlier than what was thought to be the first confirmed interstellar object discovered to enter our solar system.
Dr. Amir Siraj and Dr. Abraham Loeb of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University have written an article on the meteor, according to the US Space Command. However, the researchers had trouble publishing the paper because they used classified information from the government.
6 / “I had the pleasure of signing a note with @ussfspoc’s chief scientist, Dr. Moser, to confirm that a previously discovered interstellar object is indeed an interstellar object, a confirmation that has helped the wider astronomical community.” Pic.twitter .com / PGliONCSrW
– US Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) April 7, 2022
A secret US government satellite designed to detect foreign missiles has witnessed the fireball, Siraj writes in Scientific American magazine. The meteor was unusual for its very high speed and unusual direction – which suggested that it came from interstellar space.
The one-meter-high rock rose into the sky and debris fell into the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and the Department of Defense and NASA added the meteor to a public database. Siraj said the database, which contains information on more than 900 other fireballs recorded between 1988 and today, has caught his attention.
Researchers initially believed that the first interstellar object discovered in our solar system was discovered in October 2017. This object, 1I / ‘Oumuamua, was about to leave the solar system when it was discovered, so researchers have not had plenty of time to explore it. It has been described as a form of “giant pink fire extinguisher” and was spotted by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii.
Siraj and Loeb spent about eight months researching Oumuamua, but realized that after just days of searching the database, the 2014 Manus Island fireball could be an earlier interstellar meteor.
Any space object traveling more than about 42 kilometers per second can come from interstellar space. The data show that the fireball from the island of Manus in 2014 hit the Earth’s atmosphere at about 45 kilometers per second, which is “very promising” in identifying it as interstellar, Siraj said.
After more research and help from other scientists, including classified information from the government on the accuracy or level of accuracy of the data, Siraj and Loeb determined with 99.999% certainty that the object is interstellar. But their statement was rejected because the couple only had a personal conversation with an anonymous US government official to confirm the accuracy of the data.
However, their newspaper fell into the right hands. Matt Daniels, who worked for the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the time, read the article and helped the researchers obtain official confirmation from the government.
Lieutenant General John Shaw, Deputy Commander of the United States Space Forces, and Joel Moser, Chief Scientist of the Branch Space Operations Command, wrote a letter to a NASA scientist confirming the findings of Siraj and Loeb.
“Three years after our initial discovery, the first non-solar object to hit the Earth – the first known interstellar meteor – was officially recognized,” Siraj wrote. He and Loeb are resubmitting the document for publication now that the discovery has been officially confirmed, he told CBS News by email.
The second interstellar object discovered in our solar system was discovered by the MARGO Observatory in Crimea, Ukraine in 2019. It was later named “2I / Borisov” after amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov, who built the telescope himself and observed the comet.
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Caitlin O’Kane is a digital content producer covering current stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift.
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