The first minerals from outside our solar system to be extracted from the Pacific Ocean!

In the last week of June, a Harvard physicist claimed that the world’s first “interstellar hook” developed by him to search for exotic matter had found gold (not quite literally). Alien hunter physicist Professor Avi Loeb said the early analysis of tiny mineral droplets extracted from the Pacific Ocean originated from outside our solar system – the first of its kind in history! This remnant originated from a meteorite-like object that crashed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014.

Alloy compositions are absent from the metallic spectrum!

“This is a historic discovery because it represents the first time humans have laid their hands on material from a large object that reached Earth from outside the solar system. The success of the mission demonstrates the value of risk in science against all odds,” Loeb wrote in his notes. modeWhere he was tracking this interstellar journey.

During the expedition, the team discovered nearly 700 small metal spheres, with 57 of them being analyzed in depth. The compositions of these 57 domains are not found in the natural or man-made alloy classification, and Loeb confidently asserts that these findings are outside the range of known alloy compositions in our solar system.

Material collected from the magnetic sledge at site IM1, showing an iron-rich sphere measuring 0.4 mm in diameter (white arrow) against a background of crustal fragmentation and other debris. (Avi Loeb/ mode)

“I was thrilled when Stein-Jakobsen informed me of this based on his findings in his lab. Stein is a very conservative and professional geochemist with a worldwide reputation. He had no bias or agenda whatsoever and expected to find fields familiar to her.” Solar System to express. But the data revealed something new, never mentioned in the scientific literature. “Science is guided by evidence,” Loeb said in an interview. Daily Mail .

Examination of the fragments revealed a large abundance of beryllium, lanthanum, and uranium (‘BeLau’), accompanied by a remarkably low concentration of elements normally associated with iron, such as rhenium, which is an extremely rare element on Earth. Although these elements do exist on our planet, Professor Loeb saw that the element combinations did not correspond to alloys found on Earth, the Moon, Mars or any known natural meteorites within our solar system.

The study hypothesizes that the distinctive ‘BeLaU’ abundance pattern observed in IM1 globules could have originated from an orb with a highly differentiated planetary magma ocean. The document explains the idea that these elemental patterns deviate from those observed in celestial bodies within our solar system, even contradicting the composition of Earth’s upper continental crust.

An image of a sphere, taken at Harvard University using the Electron Microprobe in the lab of Professor Stein Jacobsen. (Avi Loeb/ mode)

Professor Loeb’s theory extends the possibility that the mixture of BeLaU, which is characterized by an “excessive abundance of heavy elements”, may have been expelled from catastrophic events such as supernovae or neutron star mergers. However, the characteristic pattern is closely related to the s process, suggesting a distinct origin, such as asymptotic giant-branch (AGB) stars. These AGB stars represent the final stage in the life cycle of low- and medium-mass stars, which are driven by intense nuclear combustion processes.

“Right now, we wanted to check if the material was coming from outside the solar system. The success of the trip demonstrates the value of taking risks in science against all odds as an opportunity to discover new knowledge,” Loeb explained.

Sailing: a voyage with unknown consequences

Under Prof. Loeb’s guidance, a team of scientists and researchers recruited the services of Dr. Loeb Eos Trips In June, she set sail on the Silver Star, bound for Papua New Guinea. Their mission began in the north of the country, and extended for two weeks, with the financial support of $ 1.5 million provided by the businessman Charles Hoskinson . Their goal was to recover any remaining fragments from an unusual (interstellar) meteorite they called IM1, which entered Earth’s atmosphere in 2014.

Data on this meteorite remained unnoticed for five years until Professor Loeb and Amir Siraj, then an undergraduate at Harvard University, discovered it in 2019 and later published their findings. However, it didn’t take another three years for the US Space Command to decide, In a letter to NASA dated March 2022 It was officially confirmed that this object originated from another solar system.

PDF. An email confirms that IM1 is of interstellar descent. (Avi Loeb/ Harvard)

This revelation was an affirmation for Professor Loeb, one of the founders Galileo Project , a research initiative based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics dedicated to the scientific exploration of space technology. Seven months later, Loeb and his team found themselves 53 miles (85.2 kilometers) off the coast of Manus Island, systematically searching more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) of ocean floor using a magnet-equipped sled securely attached to the deck of the ship. reports USA Today .

Cleaning and scraping the sled with the magnet that collected the interstellar metal fragments, with team members JJ Seller (left) and Avi Loeb (right). (Avi Loeb/ mode)

“The results demonstrate the success of the first expedition and pave the way for a second mission to obtain more data,” mission coordinator Rob McCallum of EYOS said in a statement. “We love enabling our clients’ projects anywhere on earth, but this project is out of this world.”

An ongoing analysis aimed at determining the origin of these objects is being conducted by laboratories at Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, the Broker Corporation, and the University of Technology Papua New Guinea. Each of these research facilities brings specialized expertise and resources to the comprehensive investigation.

Top photo: Images of one of the small metal fragments that came from a meter-sized object that crashed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014. Source: Avi Loeb/ mode

Written by Sahir Pandey