Scientists tracking path of meteor misled by noise caused by ‘truck’

Scientists tracking the path of a meteor that fell on Earth 10 years ago were apparently misled by the noise caused by a passing truck rumbling down a nearby road. Scientists went to the purported location of impact last year in hopes of finding and analysing debris from the meteor, called CNEOS 2014-01-08, to check whether it contained evidence of alien technology.

"The signal changed directions over time, exactly matching a road that runs past the seismometer," planetary seismologist Benjamin Fernando of Johns Hopkins University was quoted as saying by Science Alert.

"It's really difficult to take a signal and confirm it is not from something. But what we can do is show that there are lots of signals like this, and show they have all the characteristics we'd expect from a truck and none of the characteristics we'd expect from a meteor."

Today, scientists have good systems to track where the meteors enter the atmosphere and how strongly they explode upon entering the atmosphere.

One way to track big meteors is by using seismic data. This data comes from vibrations caused by the sound waves made when the rock enters the atmosphere and when pieces of the exploded rock land on the ground.

In January 2014, the meteor CNEOS 2014-01-08 was seen entering Earth's atmosphere by US government satellites. The sensors recorded it moving unusually fast, hinting that it might have come from outside our solar system. Scientists from Harvard University, Avi Loeb and Amir Siraj, wanted to find any pieces of the meteor to study.

They looked at data from a seismic station on Manus Island and figuredthat the fast rock fell into an area near Papua New Guinea.

However, another team led by Fernando noticed something odd about the seismic data. The measurements they used to track the path of the body were much more accurate than usual, especially since they only used data from one station. This made them suspicious.

After closely analysing the sound waves from other monitoring stations near Papua New Guinea, they traced the signals to the nearby road.

However, scientists say it is not uncommon for signals interpreted one way to turn out to be something else.

(With inputs from agencies)