# Looks like there may be another interstellar object passing through the Solar System. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187 "2019-09-13T20:15:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/21 "2019-09-14T15:37:17Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > I will be so embarrassed if they stop and ask for our leader. I wonder how they’d respond to his offer to purchase their planet. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/22 "2019-09-14T15:39:15Z")
Especially when the check bounced. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/23 "2019-09-14T15:52:12Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > C’mon Rama. > [@MEBuckner](#): > > “Aw, geeze, you guys caught us at kind of an [awkward](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_official_portrait_(cropped).jpg) [time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boris_Johnson_MP.jpg) here–maybe you could come back in a few half-lives of krypton-85?” We could also send the spiritual leader of Tibet to provide some balance. So it would be Rama, Lama, ding-dong. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/24 "2019-09-14T16:01:29Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > I wonder how they’d respond to his offer to purchase their planet. They’re going to be really, really pissed when all the toilets turn up missing. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/25 "2019-09-14T22:13:07Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Any chance you can link to said review? Sure 🙂 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/O-uulmO5DAs/hqdefault.jpg "War of The Worlds (2005) Retrospective / Review") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-uulmO5DAs&t=11s) Be aware though that I personally didn’t think the reviewer had anything particularly interesting or insightful to say, and I disagree with many of his opinions. Although its certainly flawed I really liked the movie. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/26 "2022-04-11T19:37:01Z")
I’m going to bump this thread because yet another interstellar object has been found. Only this time, it actually hit our poor old planet. It doesn’t have a name, but a small interstellar rock entered and exploded somewhere near New Guinea. Size: .45 meters Velocity: 58 km/sec (compared to solar escape velocity at Earth orbit: 42 km/sec) It actually happened in 2014 and [paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.07224.pdf) was written in 2019. But apparently some data needed to confirm it was owned by the DoD and they had to wait for it to be unclassified. It pre-dates 'Oumuamua, so it’s actually the first interstellar object.\* > **[An interstellar object exploded over Earth in 2014, declassified government...](https://www.livescience.com/first-interstellar-object-detected)** > > Classified data prevented scientists from verifying their discovery for 3 years. . \*Of course, we’re ignoring the one that hit Kansas back in the 1930s^. Everyone does. ^I think it was the 30s. Could have been some other time. Depends on the retconning. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/27 "2022-04-11T19:56:54Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > It doesn’t have a name, but a small interstellar rock entered and exploded somewhere near New Guinea. Awesome. We don’t have any (known) recovered interstellar meteorites, but some “local” ones still have intact presolar grains. > **[7 Billion-Year-Old Stardust Is Oldest Material Found on Earth](https://www.space.com/stardust-oldest-material-on-earth.html)** > > Some of these ancient grains are billions of years older than our sun. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/28 "2022-04-11T20:04:56Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Clearly, Earth is doomed. Earth has been doomed for some time, now. Dan ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187/29 "2022-04-13T02:17:31Z")
To anyone familiar with science, this will not be a surprise. It seems that not everyone agrees that the New Guinea object was interstellar. The reason is that it was only tracked for something like 5 seconds, so there’s probably some pretty big error bars in the velocity. Sky & Telescope has a decent writeup: > **[U.S. Space Force Releases Data on Bright Fireballs](https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/u-s-space-force-releases-data-on-bright-fireballs/)** > > The U.S. Department of Defense has released data on some 1,000 bright fireballs. Scientists are still debating if the data confirm an interstellar meteor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-there-may-be-another-interstellar-object-passing-through-the-solar-system/840187.md?page=1)