A meteor crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2014, but it wasn’t until Harvard scientists researched its velocity and trajectory five years later that they learned it came from outside our solar system.
Highlights
- Researchers discovered the first known interstellar meteor to hit Earth.
- Amir Siraj identified the object as an interstellar meteor in a study co-authored by Harvard University.
- The meteor was moving at a high speed of about 28 miles per second (45 kilometers per second) relative to the sun.
- It’s calculated based on the angle at which a meteor hits the Earth.
- The planet moves in one direction around the sun, so the meteor could have hit Earth head-on, opposite the direction the planet is moving, or from behind, in the same direction the Earth is moving.
- The meteor crashed into the Pacific Ocean in January 2014, but it wasn’t until they learned its velocity and trajectory.