Harvard physicist Avi Loeb said on April 20 that a meteor that fell into the Pacific Ocean in January 2014 was actually "alien technology, and he suggested a salvage investigation. U.S. Space Command confirmed last week that the meteor did indeed come from another solar system, making it the first known interstellar object.
Scientists believe that a meteor that hit Earth in January 2014 may have left behind interstellar debris in the South Pacific, and if found, more can be revealed about the source of the rocky object.
A memo released by U.S. Space Command last week confirmed that a meteor that struck Earth in January 2014 did indeed come from another solar system, making it the first known interstellar object to date.
NASA data shows that the rocky meteor, which is just 1.5 feet (0.45 meters) in diameter, illuminated the sky near Manus Island in Papua New Guinea on January 8, 2014, while flying at more than 100,000 miles per hour.
Oumuamua was discovered by a telescope in Hawaii in 2017, millions of miles from Earth.
The discovery means that Oumuamua, which was observed in October 2017, has been relegated to being the second interstellar object to be detected. The object was originally classified as a comet and later reclassified as an asteroid because it lacked a comet tail, a cloud of gas surrounding the comet's nucleus.
Harvard physicist Avi Loeb said on April 20 that the meteor that fell into the Pacific Ocean was actually "alien technology" and suggested using a magnet to scoop the object up from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in order to examine the "man-made" object.
He said retrieving the object could be an opportunity to fulfill his lifelong dream of acquiring extraterrestrial technology.
Harvard physicist Loeb has caused widespread controversy over public claims that aliens have made contact with Earth.
It is reported that Lobbe has caused widespread controversy over public claims that aliens have made contact with Earth.
In 2021, the physicist published a book called Alien Life, which argues that Oumuamua is the first sign of intelligent life beyond Earth.
Lobbe believes that Oumuamua is not a comet or an asteroid, but a "light sail" that is actually abandoned technology by aliens. Lobbe's views were countered by scientists.
Loeb now adds that the 2014 object is also an alien technology. Interestingly, much of the information surrounding the object has until now been classified by the U.S. government.
Scientists believe it may have left interstellar debris in the South Pacific, and if found, could reveal more about the source of the rocky object.
A memo released by the U.S. Space Command last week confirmed that a meteor that hit Earth in January 2014 did indeed come from another solar system.
The memo, dated March 1 and shared on Twitter this month, signed the findings of Dr. Joel Moser, chief scientist at U.S. Space Command.
Dr. Moser "reviewed the analysis of additional data available to the Department of Defense related to this finding," a memorandum written by U.S. Space Command Deputy Commander John M. Moser. Lieutenant General E. Shaw signed.
Dr. Moser confirmed that the speed estimates reported to NASA were accurate enough to indicate an interstellar orbit.
Back in 2019, researchers at Harvard University published a study on the preprint server arXiv acknowledging the meteor's existence and saying it came from outside the solar system.
According to the authors, the study has been awaiting peer review for years in order to confirm this claim, but it has encountered resistance from the U.S. government, which withholds key information from publicly available NASA databases.
Text/Nandu reporter Chen Lin