Leading the news: The USSC announced in a note on April 6, 2022, that a meteorite that came to Earth in 2014 was from another star system, according to Popular Mechanics.
The fireball – which flew over Papua New Guinea in 2014 – was the first known interstellar meteorite outside our solar system to hit Earth. The rock reportedly disintegrated during its descent to Earth, which led to the landing of debris in the Pacific Ocean.
Why this matters: “Before the USSC confirmed that this meteorite was a distant alien, all previous rocky bodies that fell to Earth were thought to have come from our own solar system,” according to Popular Mechanics. What they say: The findings were “accurate enough to confirm an interstellar trajectory,” said Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, deputy commander of the USSC, according to the New York Post.
“I get a kick when I just think about the fact that we have interstellar material delivered to Earth and we know where it is,” he told Vice. “One thing I’m going to check – and I’m already talking to people about – is whether it is possible to look at the ocean floor off the coast of Papua New Guinea and see if we can find any debris.”
