It could take humanity hundreds, if not thousands, of years to develop the capability to explore interstellar space, on April 17, 2019. European Southern Observatory/ESO/M.Kornmesser
It could take humanity hundreds, if not thousands, of years to develop the capability to explore interstellar space. Until then, interstellar space can just come to us.
A new study by two Harvard researchers reveals the cosmos may have already deposited the first such far-flung visitor onto our doorstep five years ago in 2014, when a small meteor crashed into Earth near Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific. According to their research, this 1.5-foot-wide object most likely came all the way from another solar system.
A Message in a Bottle
Think about it: An object, originating untold miles and millennia away, just plopping into the sea. The implications are as vast and mysterious as the wide open space from which it came.
