Avi Loeb, a physicist at Harvard University in the United States, has retrieved 50 tiny spherical iron shards from the Pacific Ocean that he believes are from an interplanetary alien spaceship.
Loeb attributes his discovery to the passing of a fireball in January 2014. The meteor was detected by US Department of Defence sensors, which track all objects entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
It was observed travelling quicker than most meteors before breaking up over the South Pacific Ocean near Papua New Guinea.
NASA’s Centre for Near Earth item Studies (CNEOS) has data on the item. The official name of the meteor is CNEOS 20140108, and it is also known as IM1 (interstellar meteor).
Observing a fireball and thinking it is an alien spaceship is a huge scientific leap. What evidence does Loeb have to back up his claim? And how likely is it that it is true?