Alien technology or natural phenomenon? Interstellar meteor material discovered

In temporary: Public curiosity in UFOs, alien technology, and galaxies far, far-off has by no means been increased than it’s proper now. And it is prone to ramp up even additional following information that fragments of an interstellar meteor – or is it from an alien probe? – have doubtless been discovered on the ocean flooring.

The story begins in 2017 when astronomers engaged on the Pan STARRS telescope in Hawaii noticed the primary interstellar asteroid ever noticed – Oumuamua (under), an object measuring a couple of quarter of a mile lengthy.

Avi Loeb, who serves as Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, was probably the most revered names to suggest that Oumuamua is not an asteroid, however a chunk of alien technology. That led to his suggestion that Amir Siraj, an astrophysics scholar at Harvard, search NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies’ (CNEOS) database of over 1,000 reported fireballs and meteor impacts.

One entry that caught Siraj’s consideration was a fireball that exploded close to Manus Island on January 8, 2014. Its velocity of over 130,000 miles per hour and the very fact it exploded a lot decrease within the Earth’s environment than different meteors made it stand out. According to a examine led by the pair, this indicated “a possible origin from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy.”

The examine was submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters, however lacking data held from the CNEOS database by the US Department of Defense, which makes use of the identical applied sciences to watch the skies for nuclear detonations, hampered the assessment course of.

But issues modified in April final 12 months when the United States Space Command (USSC) confirmed the pair’s findings in a memo.

6/ “I had the pleasure of signing a memo with @ussfspoc’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Mozer, to confirm that a previously-detected interstellar object was indeed an interstellar object, a confirmation that assisted the broader astronomical community.” pic.twitter.com/PGlIOnCSrW

– U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) April 7, 2022

And so started a Galileo Project expedition to the Pacific Ocean to retrieve spherules – sub-millimeter-sized spheres – of the interstellar meteorite, IM1. An estimate of the place the particles had fallen was calculated utilizing DoD information and seismology readings. With $1.5 million in funding from Charles Hoskinson, the entrepreneur founding father of blockchain firm Cardano, the crew set off. It included Rob McCallum, a former OceanGate Expeditions marketing consultant who had tried to warn CEO Stockton Rush in regards to the Titan submersible’s questions of safety in 2018.

Coincidentally (or was it?), days earlier than Prof Loeb set off for Papua New Guinea in June, David Charles Grusch, a former high-ranking intelligence official, claimed the US authorities, its allies, and protection contractors have retrieved partially and absolutely intact unique autos which have both landed or crashed. The craft are described as non-human in origin.

“I believe that it is easier to seek extraterrestrial facts on the ocean floor than to get them from the government,” Loeb wrote.

The aluminum Silver Star vessel set off for the meteor’s touchdown zone, 52 miles north of Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, with the crew on June 14.

“There are about 850 spoken languages in Papua, the most linguistically diverse place on Earth,” Prof Loeb wrote on Medium. “Yet, if the expedition recovers a gadget with an extraterrestrial inscription, we will add a new language to this site.”

Just a few days later, a 3-foot-wide magnetic sled was dropped to a depth of 1.2 miles onto the ocean flooring and pulled alongside by the ship round a six-mile-wide space. After per week of frustration, a filter with a mesh dimension of a 3rd of a millimeter was used to sift via the tiny volcanic particles and study the remaining bigger particles below a microscope. It was then that they discovered a metallic marble of sub-millimeter dimension and sub-milligram mass. More IM1 spherules, made from a metal and titanium alloy stronger than what’s present in different meteorites, had been discovered inside just a few hours.

“One of them looked like Earth, many of them look like gold,” Loeb stated.

Prof Loeb holding shards of corroded iron that he recovered from the magnetic sled

Prof Loeb calculated that two of the spherules have an age of order of the age of the universe – 14 billion years. It’s hoped that proof of the meteorite’s interstellar origin will likely be discovered within the coming weeks when they’re analyzed on the Harvard College Observatory.

Professor Loeb says the crew is planning for an additional expedition within the spring of 2024, the place they may search for a bigger relic of IM1. The discovery will likely be an important help in revealing the meteor’s natural, or technological, origin.

“Throughout my career, I focused on theoretical astrophysics. I chose to lead this expedition because it addresses a fundamental question of great importance to the future of humanity: ‘Are we alone?'” Loeb wrote.

“This is not a philosophical question. A technological device might be lurking 2 kilometers under the ocean surface with the answer. If so, we shall find it!”