While looking for the remains of the first known interplanetary object to fall to the Earth, a Harvard University scholar discovered some “promising material.” Two weeks ago, Professor Avi Loeb began a dredging mission to search the Pacific Ocean’s depths for the evidence he required. ‘Oumuamua’, discovered in 2017, and Comet Borisov, discovered in 2019, are two interstellar objects that entered the solar system from interstellar space that have been found recently, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
On Medium, Professor Loeb launched a blog where he posted updates on the $1.5 million expedition. 50 spherules, which are tiny spheres of material with a diameter of only a few centimetres that are often lost from meteorites as they enter and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, are among the items his team discovered.
“As molten droplets from a fireball, they carry information about the elemental and isotopic composition of the first recognised interstellar meteor,” Professor Loeb wrote in the blog.
“Aside from spherules, we recovered anomalous objects, such as a manganese-platinum wire, an iron peanut, an iron bean, as well as corroded iron shards… we will study these anomalous items in great detail,” he further said.
Many scientists, including Professor Loeb, suggested that “Oumuamua” was an alien spacecraft when it was initially discovered. Some people hypothesised that it was a comet or an asteroid.
‘Oumuamua’ is about 100 metres long, and ‘Borisov’ is between 0.4 to 1 kilometre long. These are the oldest interstellar objects that are known to exist.
