An interstellar object exploded over Earth in 2014

Declassified US government data confirm that a small meteorite that blazed through the skies over Papua New Guinea in 2014 came from far beyond our Solar System. In 2019, researchers argued that the object’s high speed and trajectory suggested that it originated from another star system. But the study was never peer-reviewed because the data needed to verify the calculations were classified. The confirmation by US government officials makes the meteorite the first interstellar object to be detected in our Solar System, spurring scientists to consider a search for shards of the object that might have settled on the sea floor.