The first-ever ‘alien’ objects have been found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Now, it may sound like a whole bunch of science fiction, but one astrophysicist claims to have found over 700 ‘interstellar’ items off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
But before you go getting excited, the objects are not incredible pieces of tech or space parts.
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Instead, the 750 items are fragments of iron droplets that entered Earth’s atmosphere from the meteor, IM1, before plunging to the bottom of the sea back in 2014.
Ranging in size from around 0.1mm to 0.7mm, they were first picked up on a US spy satellite as they crash-landed, with documents having been written about the strange phenomenon.
It was only when astrophysicist Avi Loeb and undergraduate students discovered the record in 2019 that they decided to research what had occurred off the coast of Manus Island.
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The marble-like items were dredged from the sea using a magnetic sledge in an ambitious project with the US Space Command.
And after careful analysis, Professor Loeb later confirmed his theory about the ‘spherules’, stating that there were four key indicators of their interstellar origin.
Among these were an abundance of rare elements like lanthanum and uranium, suggesting that they were formed beyond our solar system.
There were also significantly fewer volatile elements and iron, which also indicate an unusual origin - as they burnt off by the intense heat as they speed through the atmosphere.
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Finally, the expert said that there was an 'abundance' of beryllium - an element which indicated it's long travel through space.
Professor Loeb later told The Irish Star: "This is the first time ever that humans have held materials from a large interstellar object in their hands"
"Never before have we had the opportunity to examine materials from an object like this that came from outside the solar system. It's a historic discovery."
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The Harvard scientist added: "I call it space trash, like plastic in the ocean that accumulates over billions of years and isn't functioning anymore, but every now and again collides with Earth.
“The possibility of it coming from alien hardware is more exotic but it is a possibility. What we can say for sure is it's not from the solar system.
“We have four independent reasons to back that up. Whether it's technological or natural remains to be seen."
It seems the professor's discovery is simply out of this world!
Topics: Aliens