For nearly a decade, hundreds of tiny magnetic spheres shed by an extraterrestrial visitor lay deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. Now, the minute pellets have been dredged up by a scientific expedition — and they're fueling a media frenzy that some scientists feel is unearned.
In 2014, a fireball blazed across the sky above Papua New Guinea, shedding debris as it passed. A U.S. government sensor stationed nearby measured its speed at more than 110,000 mph (177,000 km/h), and NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) detected its fall. The meteorite splashed down in the ocean about 53 miles (85 kilometers) offshore.
