Harvard researcher claims to have found fragments of an interstellar object in the sea
When astronomers confirmed the first interstellar object — known as Oumuamua — to have crossed our solar system in 2017, excitement was high in the scientific community. Harvard researcher Avi Loeb quickly became one of the biggest fans of the idea of passing interstellar objects.
Since then, Loeb has devoted himself with great fervor to researching such objects. After receiving probable confirmation that a similar object – cataloged as IM1 or CNEOS 2014-01-08 – may have crashed into the Pacific Ocean, he raised $1.5 million in research funds and set out to search . Now he actually claims to have discovered fragments of an interstellar object.
At first, IM1 seemed to be quite unspectacular. But then the US Pentagon released classified data from a nuclear missile detection network. These data clearly showed that IM1’s velocity was faster than the solar escape velocity.
Loeb decided to dredge the bottom of the Pacific Ocean with magnets. He has since reappeared with a collection of small, spherical objects. They should come from the area of the alleged trajectory of IM1.
Although the analysis of the recovered material has not yet taken place, Loeb shows up on his Medium blog already convinced.
According to Loeb, the balls from the impact site should have a different composition than those recovered in other areas. The recovered samples consist of 84 percent iron, 8 percent silicon, 4 percent magnesium and 2 percent titanium.
However, it is possible that this material came from an S-type asteroid, which consists mainly of iron and magnesium silicates. On the other hand, metallic asteroids usually contain large amounts of nickel, which could not be detected in the samples. In addition, radiometric dating indicates that the fragments may be older than the solar system.
Loeb is not exactly known as a level-headed researcher with a penchant for evidence-basedness. He had assumed that Oumuamua was a piece of extraterrestrial technology. He wrote a whole book about it.
This time, however, he has real samples to test. He wants to do that. He then wants to submit his resulting work to the peer review process. So let’s wait and see.
