Reconstructing the First Interstellar Meteor, IM1

The stress tolerated by IM1 before it disintegrated implies that it was <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aca8a0/pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">tougher</a> than iron meteorites in the solar system. This raises important questions: what was IM1’s melting temperature, thermal conductivity, material strength or electric conductivity? Given the measured over-abundances in beryllium (Be), lanthanum (La) and uranium (U), dubbed “BeLaU”, by factors of hundreds above solar-system rocks, it is intriguing to figure out whether IM1 was natural or technological in origin. If natural, IM1 could be the product of a planet with a magma ocean and an iron core, where elements with affinity to iron sink towards the core and other elements left behind in the planet’s crust reflect the “BeLaU” abundance pattern discovered in our <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.15623.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">new scientific paper</a>. Following extensive work and many sleepless nights over the summer, the paper was posted on the arXiv preprint server on August 29, 2023, exactly two months after our return from the expedition. In an unprecedented gesture, the arXiv administrators chose to highlight the paper with <a href="https://sciencecast.org/casts/houvtc457xjs" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">a dedicated video</a> featuring a summary of the paper’s findings, read by artificial intelligence (AI). The arXiv director, Steinn Sigurdsson, emailed me the insight that if IM1 was technological in origin, then the enhanced abundance of heavy elements in “BeLaU”-type spherules could have resulted from <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.17295.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">the fact</a> that LaO over Mo or W sulfide substrates are promising materials for 2D semiconductors in nanotech fabrication. Of course, everyone knows that U is used in fission reactors. <a href="https://avi-loeb.medium.com/reconstructing-the-first-interstellar-meteor-im1-923c1bb37c2a">Visit Now</a>