Microscopic metallic spheres recovered from the Pacific Ocean are likely the result of humanmade industrial pollution, rather M than pieces of an interstellar meteor. Last summer, Harvard astrophysicist and extraterrestrial hunter Avi Loeb declared that several tiny, metallic balls dredged up from the bottom of the ocean were likely remnants from an interstellar meteorite, and could even contain signatures of alien technology. Now, independent analysis suggests the spheres have a much less distant origin – they are more likely a byproduct of burning coal on Earth. Loeb and his colleagues found the micrometre-sized spherules during an expedition off the coast of Papua New Guinea in search of fragments of a meteor that streaked through the atmosphere in 2014.
Based on the meteor’s recorded speed, Loeb and his team said that it was likely interstellar in origin – and that it must have left debris in its wake. The dredgedup spheres, they suggested, were that debris, as their composition is different from that of most meteorites. In several blog posts and a non-peer-reviewed paper posted to the preprint database arXiv, Loeb described the various “anomalous” properties of the metallic pellets. He zeroed in on five spherules in particular that contained a high percentage of beryllium, lanthanum and uranium. Loeb dubbed these five ‘BeLaU spherules’. He and others have since speculated that the weird spheres might be evidence of alien technology. But many scientists unrelated to the research took issue with these claims at the time. Now, several newly published studies poke additional holes in the supposed extraterrestrial origins of the spherules.
First, there is some debate as to whether or not the meteor in question was actually interstellar. It was only recorded by US military equipment, and some researchers say that it’s possible the sensors made a mistake when recording its speed. However, even if the meteor’s speed was correctly recorded, odds are low that any significant pieces of it would survive the fall through the atmosphere. “If interstellar, practically none of the 2014-01-08 bolide would have survived entry,” the authors of the new study, professors Steven Desch of Arizona State University and Alan Jackson of Towson University, wrote. “If it were travelling at the speeds that were reported, and necessary to be inte
