maximus otter
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The first meteor to hit Earth from interstellar space — and the second known interstellar visitor overall — may have just been discovered, a new study finds.
Interstellar meteors may be common, and could potentially help life travel from star to star, researchers added.
The first known visitor from interstellar space, a cigar-shaped object named 'Oumuamua, was detected in 2017. Scientists deduced the origins of the 1,300-foot-long (400 meters) object from its speed and trajectory, which suggests it may have come from another star.
Avi Loeb, the chair of astronomy at Harvard University and Amir Siraj, an undergraduate student at Harvard University, suggest they may have detected one such interstellar meteor, the solar system's second known interstellar visitor.
The researchers identified a meteor about 3 feet (0.9 meters) wide that was detected on Jan. 8, 2014, at an altitude of 11.6 miles (18.7 kilometers) over a point near Papua New Guinea's Manus Island in the South Pacific. Its high speed of about 134,200 mph (216,000 km/h) and its trajectory suggested it came from outside the solar system, the scientists said.
The scientists detailed their findings in a paper that has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters. You can read a preprint of it for free at arXiv.org
https://www.space.com/second-interstellar-object-a-meteor-discovery.html
maximus otter
Interstellar meteors may be common, and could potentially help life travel from star to star, researchers added.
The first known visitor from interstellar space, a cigar-shaped object named 'Oumuamua, was detected in 2017. Scientists deduced the origins of the 1,300-foot-long (400 meters) object from its speed and trajectory, which suggests it may have come from another star.
Avi Loeb, the chair of astronomy at Harvard University and Amir Siraj, an undergraduate student at Harvard University, suggest they may have detected one such interstellar meteor, the solar system's second known interstellar visitor.
The researchers identified a meteor about 3 feet (0.9 meters) wide that was detected on Jan. 8, 2014, at an altitude of 11.6 miles (18.7 kilometers) over a point near Papua New Guinea's Manus Island in the South Pacific. Its high speed of about 134,200 mph (216,000 km/h) and its trajectory suggested it came from outside the solar system, the scientists said.
The scientists detailed their findings in a paper that has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters. You can read a preprint of it for free at arXiv.org
https://www.space.com/second-interstellar-object-a-meteor-discovery.html
maximus otter