“This would be the most important scientific discovery that humanity ever made. Because if you think about it, it will change our perspective about our place in the universe.”

Bob Riha Jr./Getty ImagesNot everyone is win over that the 2014 meteoroid ( not pictured here ) contains extraterrestial technology .

In 2014 , a two - foot meteor dubbed CNEOS 2014 - 01 - 08 smashed into Earth ’s atmosphere , exploded , and rained down into the South Pacific Ocean . But one man believes that the meteor might be more than it seems . Convinced that it could control alien technology , Professor Avi Loeb , of Harvard University , is determined to chase after it down .

“ The ideal scenario is that in addition to flyspeck shard , we would find a bit of an advanced technical gadget , like the hundredth version of the iPhone , ” Loeb toldSalon . “ I would be intimate to campaign a clitoris on such an objective . ”

Meteor In Night Sky

Bob Riha Jr./Getty ImagesNot everyone is convinced that the 2014 meteor (not pictured here) contains extraterrestial technology.

According toNBC Boston , Loeb first came across CNEOS 2014 - 01 - 08 while purge governance database for strange meteor .

“ I found the catalogue that the government compiled of meteorite that were detected by government sensors [ from ] our missile admonition system , ” Loeb explained to NBC Boston . “ I asked my student to train if any of the meteors , the fastest moving meteors , could have arrived [ on ] Earth from outside the solar system . ”

CNEOS 2014 - 01 - 08 ’s amphetamine , and how much it burned as it embark Earth ’s standard pressure , convinced Loeb that he ’d found an interstellar shooting star that originated outside the solar organization . Though his hypothesis was difficult to evidence — many of the politics databases contain classified applied science which made Loeb ’s findings complicated to verify — U.S. Space Command confirmed in 2022 that the meteoroid was very belike interstellar .

Avi Loeb

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize FoundationHarvard Professor Avi Loeb has speculated that the meteor could contain alien technology.

Now , Loeb is driven to chase down the shooting star ’s submersed fragments to better understand its origins .

Bryan Bedder / Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize FoundationHarvard Professor Avi Loeb has speculated that the meteor could take exotic technology .

AsNPRreports , Loeb has launched a $ 1.5 million in camera funded expedition to cross down any fragments of CNEOS 2014 - 01 - 08 that he can find . The shooting star exploded above the South Pacific Ocean , and Loeb claims that he ’s narrow his search orbit to just 40 square miles .

Night Sky

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty ImagesThe universe has many mysteries, but several astrophysicists have publicly derided Loeb’s mission.

Loeb excuse toSalonthat the ocean floor will be scoured with a “ sled equipped with a attractor ” and toldNPRthat the search for the meteoroid fragment will be like “ mowing the lawn . ”

“ There is also the opening that it will be made of some admixture that nature does n’t put together , and that would imply the object is technical , ” Loeb explicate to NPR . “ If you ask what my wish is , if it ’s indeed of contrived origin , and there was some component of the object that exist , and if it has any buttons on it , I would fuck to crusade them . ”

But not everyone is win over that the meteoroid could hold foreign technology . Indeed , multiple astrophysicist have publicly criticized Loeb ’s sashay .

MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP via Getty ImagesThe universe has many mysteries , but several astrophysicist have publicly deride Loeb ’s mission .

“ If you need to commit in take a sub and going down to the bottom of the sea on … a gaga - jackass Salmon P. Chase , you may do it , ” Ethan Siegel , an astrophysicist and science author , order NPR . “ If you want to take all of your money and ditch it into the middle of the ocean , you may do that too . ”

ToSalon , Siegel added : “ The alien engineering conjecture is so far - fetched that there is no scientific grounds to consider this as anything other than someone with no evidence hollo wolf when there is no wolf that we have ever seen before . say that it is alien technology , to me , is an rank travesty for the century upon hundreds of licit solar arrangement scientist who are doing excellent oeuvre studying what really exists . ”

Dr. Steve Desch , an astrophysics professor at Arizona State University , likewise toldSalonthat Loeb ’s hunting for CNEOS 2014 - 01 - 08 will likely be a fruitless one . Desch conceive that the meteor is probably just an iron meteorite , and even if it ’s something else , its fragments would be hard to rule . He said that it ’s possible that only “ Gram ” of the meteor remain .

Despite the unfavorable judgment , however , Loeb has remain steadfast in his determination to get across down the meteoroid and investigate its composition .

“ This would be the most of import scientific find that humankind ever made , ” he evidence NBC Boston . “ Because if you think about it , it will change our perspective about our shoes in the universe . ”

After read about the meteor that might contain alien technology , look through thesealien abduction account . Or , discover the story of theAnunnaki , the alleged foreign Supreme Being of Mesopotamia .