Researchers have discovered the first known interstellar meteorite to ever hit Earth, according to a United States Space Administration document. An interstellar meteorite is a space rock coming from outside our solar system – a rare phenomenon. This is known as CNEOS 2014-01-08 and landed along the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea on January 8, 2014. The finding came as a surprise to Amir Siraj, who identified the object as an interstellar meteorite in a 2019 study he did while an undergraduate at Harvard University. Siraj was researching “Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object in our solar system found in 2017, with Abraham Loeb, a science professor at Harvard University. Siraj decided to go through the database of the NASA Near-Earth Object Center to find other interstellar objects and found what he thought was a interstellar meteorite within a few days.
NEED FOR SPEED
The high speed of the meteorite is what first caught Siraj’s eye. The meteorite was moving at a high speed of about 28 miles per second (45 kilometers per second) relative to the Earth, which is moving at about 18.6 miles per second (30 kilometers per second) around the sun. Because the researchers measured how fast the meteorite was moving while it was on a moving planet, 45 kilometers per second was not really how fast it was going. The heliocentric velocity is defined as the velocity of a meteorite relative to the sun, which is a more accurate way of determining the orbit of an object. It is calculated based on the angle at which a meteorite hits the Earth. The planet is moving in one direction around the sun, so the meteorite could have hit the Earth in front, that is, in the opposite direction of the planet or from behind, in the same direction as the Earth. As the meteorite hit the Earth from behind, Siraj’s calculations said the meteorite was traveling at about 37.3 miles per second (60 kilometers per second) relative to the sun. He then mapped the meteorite orbit and found that it was in an unbound orbit, as opposed to the closed orbit of other meteorites. This means that instead of circling the sun like other meteorites, it came from outside the solar system. “It was probably produced by another star, it was expelled from the planetary system of this star and so it happened to make its way to our solar system and collide with Earth,” Siraj said.
DIFFICULTY FOR PUBLISHING
Loeb and Siraj were unable to publish their findings in a journal because their data came from NASA’s CNEOS database, which does not disclose information such as how accurate the measurements are. After years of trying to obtain the additional information required, they received official confirmation that it was in fact an interstellar meteorite, from John Shaw, Deputy Commander of the US Space Administration. The administration is part of the US Department of Defense and is responsible for military operations in space. “Dr. Joel Moser, Chief Scientist of the Space Operations Administration, United States Space Administration Services Department of the United States Space Administration, reviewed the analysis of additional data available at the Department of Defense on this finding. “Moser confirmed that the speed estimate reported to NASA is accurate enough to indicate an interstellar trajectory,” Shaw wrote in the letter.
6 / “I had the pleasure of signing a note with the chief scientist of @ussfspoc, Dr. “Moser, to confirm that an interstellar object that had previously been identified was indeed an interstellar object, a confirmation that helped the wider astronomical community.” pic.twitter.com/PGlIONCSrW – US Space Administration (@US_SpaceCom) April 7, 2022 Siraj had conducted another investigation and had almost forgotten his discovery, so the document came as a shock. “I thought we would never know the true nature of this meteorite, that it was just blocked somewhere in the government after our many efforts, and so actually seeing this letter from the Department of Defense with my own eyes was a truly incredible moment.” . said Siraj.
A SECOND CHANCE
From the moment he received the confirmation, Siraj said that his team was working to resubmit its findings for publication in a scientific journal. Siraj would also like to assemble a team to try to retrieve part of the meteorite that landed in the Pacific Ocean, but admitted it would be an unlikely possibility given the project’s enormous size. If the researchers were able to get their hands on the “sacred chalice of interstellar objects,” Siraj said it would be scientifically innovative in helping scientists discover more about the universe beyond our solar system. NASA and the US space agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
