The hunt for fragments from a 2014 meteor is finally over, with one astrophysicist believing it is the first interstellar particle scientists have ever discovered.
Harvard's Dr Avi Loeb told Breakfast this morning the hunt has been underway since mid-last year, however the meteor first exploded into the atmosphere in 2014.
Loeb said the meteor was discovered to be interstellar in 2017, after studies concluded the particle was travelling too fast in relation to the sun and Earth’s speed, meaning that the rock must have come from outside the solar system.
However, the validity of these fragments coming from outside the solar system was debated by the scientific community, owing to the involvement of the US Government.
The US Space command later issued a letter to NASA stating with “99.999% confidence” the object came from Interstellar space, said Loeb.
It was this letter that pushed Loeb into searching the bottom of the Pacific Ocean for these particles.
“There were many people who said the chance of finding anything is extremely small because the area is 10kms either side,” said Loeb.
“We were searching for sub-millimetre sized spherules, basically tiny dust particles left over from the explosion. So just imagine searching a 10km size region for a millimetre size fragment - and we managed to find them.”
He explained how his team of scientists used a magnetic sled, and dragged it on the ocean floor, which led to the remarkable discovery.
He said this has been the "best two weeks of my scientific career".
For now, he says, he is analysing the composition of the droplets, in an effort to date them and provide further proof that they came from interstellar space.
“We can tell the difference between an artificial alloy and the natural rock - so that will be very exciting to check, that we will do in the coming weeks.”
He is hoping that this will lead to bigger discoveries.
“So in principal, we can trace the location of any big relic they may have left behind by following the track of those spherules that we found already, and then search for the big relic.”
“And of course, it may be a rock that was made in some unusual environment outside the solar system, but it could also be a gadget.”
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