US Space Force confirms meteor that struck Earth in 2014 came from interstellar space

The US Space Command (USSC) on Tuesday confirmed that the meteor that struck Earth in 2014 was an interstellar object, meaning it came from a different star system. The USSC, in a memo released earlier this month made the revelation which has made 'Oumuamua' the second interstellar object to visit our solar system in 2017. First discovered by two Harvard University researchers, the newly validated meteor struck Earth on January 8, 2014, near Papua New Guinea's Manus island. 

Scientists confirm finding new deep space object

The theory of the object being an interstallar object was first proposed by Harvard scientists – Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb. The meteor was also studied in 2019 and the data has been submitted for publishing in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, however, it is yet to be peer-reviewed. As for its confirmation about being an interstellar object, the Dr. Joel Mozer, Chief Scientist of Space Operations Command reviewed the analysis of additional data about the object.

According to USSC's memo, Dr. Mozer confirmed that the meteor's velocity estimate of the object was sufficiently accurate to indicate an interstellar trajectory. Further, the organisation said that this confirmation has predated the discovery of 'Oumuamua' which scientists thought to be the first visitor from deep space. Interestingly, the confirmation has also made the 2014 meteor the first interstellar entity to strike Earth in addition to being the first outsider. Scientists also believe that the meteor sprinkled its fragments into the South Pacific Ocean and are planning to search for the debris. 

In an interview with Vice, Siraj said as per EarthSky, "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". It is worth noting that the scientist duo from Harvard have also published research papers on Oumuamua along with comet Borisov, another interstellar object spotted in 2019.

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