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posted by mrpg on Wednesday April 17 2019, @04:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the striking-development? dept.

Possible Evidence of an Extrasolar Object Striking the Earth in 2014:

A pair of researchers has found possible evidence of an extrasolar object striking the Earth back in 2014. In their paper uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, Amir Siraj and Abraham Loeb describe their study of data in the Center for Near-Earth Object studies database and what they found.

[...]Loeb and Siraj had reasoned that space objects traveling faster than normal might be evidence enough of an extrasolar visitor. That led to them to perform searches in the Center for Near-Earth Object studies database for objects that traveled faster than normal. They report that they found three hits, two of which they dismissed because of incomplete data. The third described a meteor that was believed to be slightly less than a meter wide that had been observed disintegrating in the atmosphere on January 8th, 2014, at a height of 18.7 kilometers near Papua New Guinea. Its speed had been measured by a government sensor at 216,000 km/h. By looking at its trajectory and tracing backward, the researchers report that it likely came from somewhere outside of our solar system. If the evidence pans out, the sighting would be the first known instance of an extrasolar object striking the Earth.

The researchers suggest that the object's high speed indicates that it was likely flung out of another star system. And if that were the case, it would have been reasonably close to its star at some point, deep in the interior of a planetary system—perhaps in its "Goldilocks zone," which means there was some chance it carried life. The researchers have written a paper describing their findings, which they have submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

For various definitions of 'striking' and 'Earth'.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 17 2019, @09:03PM (3 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday April 17 2019, @09:03PM (#831306)

    Humans were not made extinct by the 2014 impact, AFAIK.

    I was.

    Um.

    Well, I got better.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @10:23PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @10:23PM (#831358)

    You mean scientists reanimated your brain hours after death? I've heard about that happening.

    • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 17 2019, @11:55PM (1 child)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday April 17 2019, @11:55PM (#831407)

      Well, "reanimated" really.

      This brain's not that great. I might get myself another one.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @03:20AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @03:20AM (#831487)

        You know. If I had a million dollars, I'd buy a new heinie.

        You know why? Cuz mine's got a crack in it!

        Thank you. I'll be here all week!