Avi Loeb’s Interstellar Trash
Does a mysterious explosion have alien origins?
At the time few people noticed the explosion. Partly that was because it happened in the middle of the ocean, far from any inhabited land, and partly because it detonated at three in the morning, when most sensible people were asleep. Military sensors, however, do not sleep, and since they track much of what happens in the Western Pacific, they dutifully noted down the blast.
Because of that, we know a few things for sure. First, the explosion happened at roughly three in the morning, early on January 9th, 2014. Second, it took place at an altitude of eighteen thousand meters, almost twice as high as commercial jets fly; detonating somewhere to the north-east of Papua New Guinea. And, third, we know it came from a fast moving object, travelling at almost thirty miles a second.
We also know that two other similar events happened in January of that year, once in the mid-Indian Ocean and once over northern Australia. Such events, indeed, are not uncommon. Almost all are meteors smashing into the atmosphere, burning and then exploding when they hit thicker layers of air.
The January 9th meteor, however, was strange enough to draw the attention of Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb. In a paper, he noted that it was one of the fastest meteors ever…
