A team led by the well-known Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has analyzed for the first time what they conclude are materials from a meter-sized object that originated out of the solar system.
A team led by the well-known Harvard astrophysicist has analyzed for the first time what they conclude is materials from a meter-sized object that originated outside the solar system. The researchers of the Galileo Project just completed the initial analysis of 57 spherules of the place, in the Pacific Oceanwhere it crashed the first recognized interstellar meteor to impact EarthIM1, on January 8, 2014.
In total, the expedition led by Loeb collectedAround 700 spherules from June 14 to 28, 2023using a magnetic sled deployed on the ocean floor at a depth of 2,000 meters from the ship Silver Stardeployed from Papua New Guinea to an area of 10 kilometers around the impact location.
The interstellar origin of IM1 was established with a 99.999% confidence level based on velocity measurements made by US government satellites, as confirmed by the US Space Command to NASA, Loeb says.
The light curve of the fireball showed three flares, separated by a tenth of a second from each other. Before entering the solar system, IM1 was moving at a speed of 60 kilometers per second relative to the local standard of the rest of the Milky Way, faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the Sun.