A Meteor From Another Solar System May Have Hit Earth, and the Implications Are Fascinating

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.