Researchers just recovered the first item outside the solar system. According to them, it is rich in heavy elements with patterns different from the Earth's upper continental crust.
Professor Avi Loeb recovered the mysterious IM1 meteor from the coast of Papua New Guinea during a $1.5 million expedition. Loeb claimed that the item was from interstellar space and was proof of extraterrestrial life.
Professor Loeb wants his research to address whether the spheres are man-made or natural. The results thus far do not provide an answer to this question.
He said on Tuesday that the discovery was significant because it marked the first time that components from a sizable object that had come to Earth from outside the solar system had been in human hands.
The team found about 700 tiny metallic spheres during the expedition, and the 57 analyzed contained compositions that did not match any natural or artificial alloys. They sent it to Stein Jacobsen's laboratory at Harvard University for composition analysis.
Loeb was confident of Jacobsen's expertise, even noting that the latter is a "highly conservative and professional geochemist" with no biases or agenda. The data reportedly showed something new in the scientific literature.
The pieces' analysis revealed that they are abundant in lanthanum, uranium, and beryllium, with low concentrations of metals that bond to iron, such as rhenium, one of the rarest elements on Earth.
Professor Loeb noted that although the elements are present on Earth, the patterns do not correspond to the alloys on Earth, the moon, Mars, or any naturally occurring meteorites in the solar system.
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