‘Oumuamua' was so far the only known interstellar object to make a fly-by of Earth. Now scientists have found evidence that an earlier object may have entered Earth’s atmosphere.
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Background: In 2018, a study by Harvard scientists suggested that ‘Oumuamua' — discovered in late 2017, known as the first object from outside the Solar System to do a fly-by of Earth — may have been an alien probe sent to investigate Earth, and not a comet as previously thought.
Recent development: Now, a recent research paper by Loeb and a colleague, Amir Siraj, have proposed that before ‘Oumuamua, there may have been another recent interstellar visitor — a meteor from another solar system may have actually hit Earth in 2014. It burned up in the atmosphere and fell into the South Pacific.
Criteria: They reached their conclusion by searching NASA’s Near Earth Object Database to identify the fastest meteors with strange trajectories. If an object moves extremely fast, it can be a sign that it is not tied to an orbit around the sun. The object they spotted was travelling at about 60 km/sec.
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