CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Harvard University professor believes a meteorite that crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2014 may be made of a material that one would expect to be in their favorite science fiction movie, NBC 10 Boston reports.
Avi Loeb — the longest serving chair of Harvard Universities Department of astronomy — is convinced this object may be alien technology or a meteorite of unprecedented material strength.
None of this is possible to confirm without physically studying the object, though, so the professor has planned an expedition to retrieve it that will cost over a million dollars in funding from private donors.
"This would be the first time that humans put their hands on the material that makes an object that came from another star," he said.
While the data now confirms that the object is of interstellar origin — the path to confirming this wasn’t quick. Using data from government censors primarily used for national security as part of our missile defense system, Loeb and a student studied multiple meteors to see if any stood out.
Read the full story on NBC 10 Boston's website here.
