A meteor has traveled far to visit Earth from home.

Scientists have discovered the first asteroid to hit Earth, according to a recent report from the United States Space Command. Interstellar meteors are rare cosmic rocks that occur outside our solar system.

This was named CNEOS 2014-01-08 and crashed along the northern coast of Papua New Guinea on January 8, 2014.

The discovery came as a surprise to Amir Siraj, who identified the celestial body as star meteors in a 2019 study he compiled while still a Harvard University graduate. . Siraj, along with Harvard University science professor Abraham Loeb, explored "Oumuamua", the first known star in our solar system, discovered in 2017.

Siraj decided to explore NASA's Center for Earth Exploration for other connected devices, and within days he discovered what he believed to be an interstellar meteor.

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A fast meteor captured Siraj's heart first.

The star moves at a speed of about 28 miles per second (45 kilometers per second) with Earth, moving around the sun at about 18.6 miles per second (30 kilometers per second). Because scientists have measured the speed at which meteors move around the Earth, 45 kilometers per second is not the speed at which they move. Heliocentric velocity is defined as the velocity of the star with the sun, is a better way to determine the cycle of the product. It is calculated based on the angle at which the meteor collides with the Earth. The planets move around the sun, so meteors can collide with the earth.

Because the star hit Earth from behind, Siraj's calculations show the star moved at 37.3 miles per second (60 kilometers per second) relative to the sun.

He then described the meteor's route and found that it was in an unrestricted position, unlike the closed loop of other meteors. This means that they do not revolve around the sun like other meteors do, but come from outside the sun.

"Maybe it was created by another star and kicked out of that star, and it reached our solar system and collided with Earth," Siraj said.

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Loeb and Siraj were unable to report their findings in the journal due to their data coming from NASA's CNEOS database. After years of trying to get the additional information they needed, US Space Command Deputy Chief John Shaw confirmed to them that he was, in fact, the middle star. The mission is part of the US Department of Defense and is responsible for military service in the field.

"Dr. Joel Mozer, a researcher in the Office of Operations Command, part of the U.S. Space Command's U.S. Space Force program, has reviewed the additional information available to the Department of Homeland Security related to this discovery is clear enough to report “Shaw wrote in a statement.

The data came as a shock, as Siraj moved on to other research and almost forgot his findings. "I don't think we can figure out what that star is, and it only blocks after many attempts within government, so it's surprising that we saw the Pentagon letter with my own eyes." said Shiraz.

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After receiving approval, Siraj said his team was working to resubmit the results for publication in a research journal.

Siraj was also involved in attempting to recover some of the meteors that were lost in the Pacific Ocean, but he acknowledged the drawbacks due to the scale of the project.

If scientists could get their hands on the "holy grail of interstellar objects," it would be a quest to help scientists discover more about Earth beyond our solar system.

NASA and US Space Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.