A recent discovery has turned the astronomy world upside down, with seismic signals previously linked to a meteor crash from outside our solar system actually being caused by a truck driving down the road.
Dr. Avi Loeb, a renowned theoretical astrophysicist at Harvard, had claimed to have found debris from a meteorite that fell near Papua New Guinea in 2014. Using seismic data, Loeb pinpointed what he believed to be the crash site of the meteor. He suggested that the meteor may have originated from outside our solar system, a theory that garnered support from the U.S. Space Force.
However, a new study presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by planetary scientist Dr. Benjamin Fernando has debunked Loeb’s findings. Fernando’s analysis revealed that the seismic signals were actually caused by a passing truck on the island of Papua New Guinea and not from an extraterrestrial crash.
Furthermore, Fernando determined that the meteor actually crashed in a different location than previously suggested by Loeb, making the debris collected unrelated to the supposed 2014 meteor. Despite this revelation, Loeb stood by his conclusions, highlighting unusual levels of beryllium, lanthanum, and uranium in the particles that do not align with objects native to our solar system.
In the end, the mystery of the signals has been solved, with the truck driving down the road being the real source of the seismic disturbance, rather than an alien object from beyond our solar system. The scientific community continues to analyze and interpret new data, pushing the boundaries of our understanding of the universe.
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