Interstellar meteor hit Earth in 2014, US Space Command documents confirm

Top secret documents have finally revealed details of a mysterious object that blazed over Papua New Guinea eight years ago.

Top secret documents have finally been published revealing details of a mysterious object that exploded in space eight years ago.

The blazing fireball was spotted over the southwestern Pacific Ocean in Papua New Guinea back in 2014, The Sun reports.

It’s now been confirmed as an interstellar object.

In fact, it’s the first interstellar meteor detected in our solar system.

The rock measured only 1.5 feet wide (less than half a metre) and was hurtling towards Earth at the incredible speed of 209,214km per hour.

Those sorts of speeds are unheard of for meteors within our solar system.

Top secret documents have finally revealed details of a mysterious object that blazed over Papua New Guinea eight years ago.

It’s thought some debris from it may have landed into the South Pacific Ocean as well.

Harvard space experts Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb made the call years ago – but their research was caught up in red tape while officials investigated.

They said in 2019 that it probably came “from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy”.

6/ “I had the pleasure of signing a memo with @ussfspoc’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Mozer, to confirm that a previously-detected interstellar object was indeed an interstellar object, a confirmation that assisted the broader astronomical community.” pic.twitter.com/PGlIOnCSrW

— U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) April 7, 2022

The United States Space Command (USSC) has now confirmed details in a newly-released memo.

Lieutenant general John E Shaw, deputy commander of the USSC, said that the findings were “sufficiently accurate to confirm an interstellar trajectory”.

“I get a kick out of just thinking about the fact that we have interstellar material that was delivered to Earth, and we know where it was,” Mr Siraj told Vice.

“One thing that I’m going to be checking – and I’m already talking to people about – is whether it is possible to search the ocean floor off the coast of Papua New Guinea and see if we can get any fragments.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Interstellar meteor hit Earth in 2014, US Space Command documents confirm