New Delhi
Harvard Professor Avi Loeb and student Amir Siraj have charted a plan to fish out an interstellar meteorite from the seabed of the Pacific Ocean using a giant magnet. It may sound like a scene straight out of a wild sci-fi movie but the duo, under their $1.6 million Galileo Project are serious about the potential of the project, which they have claimed is cheaper than sending a spacecraft outside the solar system.
Talking about their plan, Siraj stated that they will be using the meteorite's ferrous properties to fetch it out.
"Most meteorites contain enough iron that they will stick to the type of magnet we plan on using for the ocean expedition. Given its extremely high material strength, it is very likely that the fragments of CNEOS 2014-01-08 are ferromagnetic." said Siraj.
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According to the project blueprint, the Galileo Project's ship would carry a magnetic sled on a longline winch. The sled will be lunged 1.7 kilometres into the seabed and attempt to sweep the floor and collect even the tiny fragments of the meteorite, measuring as tiny as 0.004 inches.
It is pertinent to note that the object named CNEOS 2014-01-08 paid a visit to Earth in 2014 and crashed into the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Papua New Guinea. What makes the meteorite special is that it is classed as an interstellar object, meaning it came from outside the solar system.
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Both Loeb and Siraj came to the conclusion that the object was interstellar by using data to calculate the velocity and trajectory of the object. According to them, the object was travelling at a speed of 60 kilometres per second which is much faster than an object that originates in the solar system.
"At the Earth's distance from the sun, any object travelling faster than about 42 kilometres per second is on an unbounded, hyperbolic escape trajectory relative to the sun. So it [CNEOS 2014-01-08] must have originated from outside of the solar system" said Siraj.
To this date, only three interstellar objects have been observed by humankind. However, it will be the first time that one can lay a hand on one and use it to figure out secrets of our universe.
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"Finding such a fragment would represent the first contact humanity has ever had with material larger than dust from beyond the solar system," added Siraj.
(With inputs from agencies)
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