An Israeli astronomer and his research partner identified the first interstellar meteor known to have hit the Earth, the US military has confirmed.
The space rock crashed into our atmosphere off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014, and is the third object known to have visited our solar system from outside of the sun’s orbit.
Avi Loeb, a Harvard astronomer from Israel, and his research partner Amir Siraj determined that it came from outside our solar system in 2019, but were unable to confirm the finding until this month.
Loeb is a well-known and controversial astronomer who argues that another interstellar visitor, an object called Oumuamua that hurtled past the sun in 2017, could have been made by an alien civilization.
Scientists have also identified a comet that came into our neighborhood from another solar system, making the 2014 meteor the third known interstellar object, and the first to strike the Earth. Meteors are relatively small celestial objects made of rock and metal that enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
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Loeb and Siraj were met with skepticism when they announced the finding, until the US military confirmed their results.
The US Space Command, part of the US Department of Defense, said its deputy commander, John E. Shaw, and chief scientist, Joel Mozer, confirmed that the “previously-detected interstellar object was indeed an interstellar object.”
The data “confirmed that the velocity estimate reported to NASA is sufficiently accurate to indicate an interstellar trajectory.”
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The Space Command scientists analyzed additional data to confirm Loeb and Siraj’s finding, and presented the results to NASA and the European Space Agency. Space Command is responsible for US military operations in space and monitors space objects that could threaten the Earth.
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
NASA disputed the Space Command confirmation of the meteor, saying, “the short duration of collected data, less than five seconds, makes it difficult to definitively determine if the object’s origin was indeed interstellar.”
The meteor, known as CNEOS 2014-01-08, was about the size of a dishwashing machine and streaked into our atmosphere near Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island on January 8, 2014.
Siraj wrote in Scientific American this week that US government satellites designed to detect missile launches collected data on the meteor.
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Siraj was an undergraduate at Harvard at the time of the discovery, with Loeb acting as his adviser. The two were studying Oumuamua when they began looking for other interstellar objects, and soon came across the data on the meteor.
The Perseid meteor shower, seen in Marganell, Spain, on August 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Siraj said dozens of similar meteors strike Earth each year, but this one was traveling exceptionally fast and coming from an unusual direction, indicating it came from outside of our solar system.
The meteor was traveling in an “unbound orbit,” while other meteors travel in closed orbits as they circle around the sun. Before hitting Earth, the meter had been traveling at a speed of around 60 kilometers (37 miles) per second, far faster than other meteors.
Loeb and Siraj drafted a paper on their discovery and submitted it for peer-reviewed publication, but journals refused the research, citing its reliance on confidential information. Some of the US government data is kept secret for security reasons. The pair said at the time they were 99.999% confident in their conclusions.
Israeli Harvard scientist Avi Loeb. (Screenshot/YouTube)
They were later approached by a defense official who was able to get official Defense Department confirmation of the find.
The meteor is the third interstellar object ever sighted in our solar system, after Oumuamua and a comet sighted in 2019 called Birosov, neither of which hit the Earth. Comets are smaller objects made out of ice, dust and rocky particles; asteroids are much larger bodies made of rock and metal.
Siraj said his and Loeb’s findings on the interstellar meteor imply that there are many more such objects. He said its speed suggests it could have come from “deep within another planetary system,” close to that system’s star, as opposed to the edge of another system, which was seen as more likely.
The researchers are looking into whether it’s possible to retrieve fragments of the meteor from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, calling a physical sample “the holy grail of interstellar object studies.” The meteor broke up as it entered our atmosphere.
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Loeb was the longest-serving chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy, a position he held from 2011-2020, and is currently a tenured science professor at the university.
He came to public prominence after asserting that Oumuamua, an anomalous object from outside the solar system observed tumbling past the sun in 2017, could have been an extraterrestrial artifact.
Astronomers in Hawaii only glimpsed the object they called Oumuamua, meaning “scout” in Hawaiian, as it careened away from the sun, moving irregularly. The strangely shaped body was the first known interstellar object seen in our solar system. It appeared to be small, under 1 kilometer in length, dark red and shaped like either a cigar or a pancake.
An artist’s impression of the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua. Scientist Avi Loeb believes it could have been an extraterrestrial artifact. (Courtesy/European Southern Observatory, M. Kornmesser)
Loeb argued Oumuamua could have been an extraterrestrial artifact, such as a light sail powered by solar rays, or a communication dish. Most astronomers believe it was natural in origin, but differ in opinion on what it was, or where it came from.
He launched the Galileo Project last year, an initiative that will systematically search for physical artifacts produced by “extraterrestrial technological civilizations.” Previous programs, such as the SETI Institute, scoured the cosmos in search of electromagnetic signals, not objects.
The Galileo Project aims to identify unidentified aerial phenomena and “Oumuamua-like interstellar objects” through scientific analysis of data collected with cutting-edge instruments. The data and analytical process will be transparent and open to the public, the group said.
Siraj is now the director of interstellar object studies for the Galileo Project, and said this week that the group has received funding to research a possible “spacecraft rendezvous” with an interstellar object to extract a physical sample.
Loeb is from the moshav of Beit Hanan in central Israel, served in the Israel Defense Forces’ prestigious Talpiot program and received his first degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
