In 2014, a meteorite dubbed IM1 broke apart over the Pacific Ocean, casting at least 700 remnants into the ocean near Papua New Guinea, according to Avi Loeb, Ph.D., a theoretical astrophysicist at Harvard. In new research, Loeb says his team found evidence in 57 of these shiny spherules that suggests they came from outside our solar system, making them the "first recognized interstellar object bigger than half a meter in size."
"This is the first time that scientists analyzed materials from such an object, so that's a historic discovery already," Loeb told Salon in a video call.
