HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW


	The US Space Administration has confirmed that a 2014 meteorite is the first known interstellar object in our solar system.  		Interstellar means that it comes from outside our solar system.  		Scientists say its speed suggests the meteorite was interstellar.  		The finding could tell us more about distant worlds.  		Read below to find out why it is important.  ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ 


When we talk about space, we often talk about the things that are closest to us – the sun, the moon, the planets and the asteroid belt.
Or are we talking about other solar systems: stars with planets that are incredibly far away, the nearest of which would take tens of thousands of years to reach even our fastest spaceships.
But what about the darkness in between?  What is beyond our solar system?
This is called interstellar space, and some scientists now say that the first known object from this void came to our planet almost a decade ago.
On April 6, the U.S. Space Administration confirmed “with 99.999 percent confidence” that a meteorite that struck Earth in 2014 is the first known interstellar object to enter our solar system and the first known to have struck Earth.
In the same note, they note that a team of astronomers from Harvard University initially made the claim in 2019, but that only now are they confirming these findings through their own analysis.
Interstellar objects like this meteorite are important because they could teach scientists a lot about the formation of planets in distant worlds.
Voyager 1, a spacecraft launched in 1977, is the first man-made object to leave our solar system.  It reached interstellar space in 2012 after 35 years of flight.  (Image: NASA)


The first known interstellar object 
The interstellar object entered Earth’s atmosphere on January 8, 2014, over Papua New Guinea, a country in northern Australia.
It was about the size of a couch and weighed as much as a moose, traveling 210,000 km / h.
Most of the object was probably burned at the entrance and landed in the ocean.
In a note posted on Twitter on April 6 entitled “Confirmation of Interstellar Object”, the US Space Administration said that “the speed estimate reported to NASA is accurate enough to indicate an interstellar orbit”.
In other words, they claim to be moving too fast to come from our solar system.


Why does the speed of a meteorite indicate that it is interstellar? 
To explain this question, it is helpful to discuss “Oumuamua.
So far, one object that briefly entered our solar system in 2017, called “Oumuamua,” was the first interstellar object known to have entered the solar system.
When they first spotted Oumuamua, scientists wondered if the object was of extraterrestrial origin due to its strange shape.  Newer science suggests that it is more likely to be a remnant of a distant world resembling Pluto.  (Illustration by William Hartmann and Michael Belton / The Associated Press)
The object was about four school buses long and was visible only as a point of light as it passed through the sun at a speed of 315,000 km / h.
This is fast enough to travel around the world in about eight minutes.
Objects in our solar system, on the other hand, are gravitationally connected and orbit around the sun.
They usually do not reach these types of high speeds.
Due to the speed and unnatural flight path of Oumuamua, scientists have determined that the object is of interstellar origin.
This is the same reason that the US government invokes to explain why they believe that the meteorite of 2014 came from interstellar space.
There are only two other objects that have been confirmed to have moved away from another stellar system in ours.  The most recent is comet 21 / Borisov, discovered in 2019. (Image: NASA)


Because that matters 
Our solar system is separated from vast oceans by other stellar systems, which we can see through telescopes but cannot yet visit.
To scientists, interstellar objects are like finding a message in a bottle washed up on the shore and can teach us about worlds that are currently unlikely to reach.
Comets from our solar system, for example, are used to understand how planets form and interstellar objects could help scientists do the same for distant planets.
Do you have more questions?  Do you want to tell us how we are doing?  Use the “send us comments” link below.  ⬇️⬇️⬇️
With files from MARCIA DUNN / AP News and NASA