Localizing The First Interstellar Meteor With Seismometer Data

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how seismometer data can be used to accurately localize an interstellar meteor, significantly narrowing down its potential impact area for retrieval efforts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of using seismometer data to localize interstellar meteors, improving precision over previous coordinate estimates.

Findings

Localized the meteor to a 16 km^2 area

Enhanced the precision of impact location

Facilitates future meteor fragment retrieval

Abstract

The first meter-scale interstellar meteor (IM1) was detected by US government sensors in 2014, identified as an interstellar object candidate in 2019, and confirmed by the Department of Defense (DoD) in 2022. We use data from a nearby seismometer to localize the fireball to a $\sim 16 \mathrm{\; km^2}$ region within the $\sim 120 \mathrm{\; km^2}$ zone allowed by the precision of the DoD-provided coordinates. The improved localization is of great importance for a forthcoming expedition to retrieve the meteor fragments.