Mystery ‘interstellar object’ exploded over Pacific in 2014, declassified US Space Command report reveals
TOP secret documents have finally been published revealing details of a mysterious object that exploded in space eight years ago. The blazing fireball was spotted over the southwestern Pacific in Papua New Guinea back in 2014. It’s now been confirmed as an interstellar object. In fact, it’s the first interstellar meteor detected in our solar […]
TOP secret documents have finally been published revealing details of a mysterious object that exploded in space eight years ago.
The blazing fireball was spotted over the southwestern Pacific in Papua New Guinea back in 2014.
It’s now been confirmed as an interstellar object.
In fact, it’s the first interstellar meteor detected in our solar system.
The rock measured only 1.5 feet wide and was hurtling towards Earth at the incredible speed of 130,000 mph.
Those sorts of speeds are unheard of for meteors within our solar system.
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It’s thought some debris from it may have landed into the South Pacific Ocean as well.
Harvard space experts Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb made the call years ago.
But their research was caught up in red tape while officials investigated.
They said in 2019 that it probably came “from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy“.
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The United States Space Command (USSC) has now confirmed details in a newly-released memo.
Lieutenant general John E. Shaw, deputy commander of the USSC, said that the findings were “sufficiently accurate to confirm an interstellar trajectory”.
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Siraj told Vice: “I get a kick out of just thinking about the fact that we have interstellar material that was delivered to Earth, and we know where it is.
“One thing that I’m going to be checking—and I’m already talking to people about—is whether it is possible to search the ocean floor off the coast of Papua New Guinea and see if we can get any fragments.”
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