U.S. Space Command confirms interstellar meteor hit Earth
CBSN
The U.S. Space Command announced this week that it determined a 2014 meteor hit that hit Earth was from outside the solar system. The meteor streaked across the sky off the coast of Manus Island, Papua New Guinea three years earlier than what was believed to be the first confirmed interstellar object detected entering our solar system.
Dr. Amir Siraj and Dr. Abraham Loeb of the Department of Astronomy of Harvard University wrote a paper about the meteor, U.S. Space Command says. However, the scientists had trouble getting paper published, because they used classified information from the government.
A classified U.S. government satellite designed to detect foreign missiles witnessed the fireball, Siraj writes in Scientific American Magazine. The meteor was unusual because of its very high speed and unusual direction – which suggested it came from interstellar space.
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