Scientists May Have Stolen Metallic Spherules Found on the Ocean Floor

Researchers are scouring the deep for signs of alien life—and it might be illegal.

The team—led by Avi Loeb, a controversial theoretical physicist known for his strong belief that we have been visited by intelligent extraterrestrial life and specific focus, in this context, on ‘Oumuamua—has been searching the ocean floor for remnants of Interstellar Meteor 1 (IM1), which crashed into Earth in 2014.

The meteor was a bit of an anomaly, largely due to its robust nature and speed. It and its spiritual successor Interstellar Meteor 2 (IM2), which crashed to Earth in 2017, flew in at about 110,000 miles per hour. That’s at the higher end of meteor speeds, as they typically hit Earth’s atmosphere traveling between 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour.