A Harvard scientist has suggested that our Solar System may be far more crowded with interstellar objects, chunks of rock or ice from other star systems, than anyone realized.
Avi Loeb, who made headlines for his controversial claim that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien spacecraft, presented new data and calculations indicating that roughly 35 million meter-scale interstellar objects are embedded inside Earth’s orbit.
This conclusion comes from the detection of two interstellar meteor candidates, CNEOS-22 and CNEOS-25, recorded in 2022 over the Pacific and in 2025 over the Barents Sea in the Arctic.
The objects were small, about six feet and four feet across, but traveling fast enough to exceed the Solar System’s escape velocity.
Loeb and his team estimated that such meteors collide with Earth about once every three years, implying a dense population of similar objects around the Sun.
Each meter-scale object could carry roughly three million tons of material, totaling about 220 billion tons within Earth’s orbit.
Larger interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS are far rarer, but their greater mass makes their total contribution similar, suggesting smaller objects may be fragments of bigger bodies.
Loeb said studying this population could reveal how material moves between star systems.
Pictured is an artist impression of the first known interstellar visitor, the object ‘Oumuamua, was detected on October 19, 2017, as it passed through the inner Solar System
This idea builds on discoveries like the famous ‘Oumuamua and comet Borisov, plus newer findings about massive interstellar objects, implying that space is filled with ‘interstellar trash’ drifting between stars.
The first known interstellar visitor, the object ‘Oumuamua, was detected on October 19, 2017, as it passed through the inner Solar System.
Two years later, on August 30, 2019, comet Borisov became the second confirmed interstellar object, traveling on a hyperbolic path that marked it as a visitor from another star system.
With improved observations, including next-generation telescopes and potential space interceptors, scientists could better measure interstellar visitors’ properties, origins, and trajectories.
In a Tuesday blog post, Loeb said a coordinated effort could alert Earth to threats from natural impacts or, in rare cases, artificial objects, expanding planetary defense beyond Solar System asteroids.
He plans to seek funding for ocean expeditions to recover material from CNEOS-22 and CNEOS-25.
Radioactive dating could estimate how long the objects traveled through interstellar space and help trace their origins.
Loeb has previously argued that debris recovered from a 2014 meteor near Papua New Guinea could include artificial fragments, though the claim remains disputed.
Avi Loeb, who made headlines for his controversial claim that 3I/ATLAS (PICTURED) could be an alien spacecraft, presented new data and calculations indicating that roughly 35 million meter-scale interstellar objects are embedded inside Earth’s orbit
His team reported finding hundreds of tiny metallic spheres on the ocean floor, some with unusual compositions that he says do not match known alloys.
Loeb has also speculated that a future civilization could one day find a human-made object like Voyager entering its atmosphere.
Voyager 1 and 2, after traveling billions of years across the Milky Way, might eventually strike a habitable exoplanet.
Alien scientists could discover the 12-inch Golden Record, which carries images, natural sounds, music, and greetings in 55 languages.
Recognizing the artifact as evidence of intelligent life would be a profound scientific challenge, Loeb wrote.
By combining atmospheric meteor detection, satellite monitoring, and powerful telescopes, researchers could gain unprecedented insight into material circulating between stars.
Such work could transform our understanding of interstellar space while improving readiness for future encounters with objects from beyond the Solar System.
If Loeb’s estimates hold, the sun’s neighborhood is far busier than previously assumed, filled with relics from distant planetary systems.
Each object represents a tiny sample of another star’s history, carrying clues about how planets and debris form across the galaxy.
Whether they are ordinary rocks or rare technological artifacts, these visitors offer a new frontier for astronomy, planetary science, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
For now, most scientists expect the objects to be natural, but their sheer number raises new questions about what drifts unseen through interstellar space.
Loeb’s work adds to a growing body of research suggesting that interstellar visitors may be common, not rare, and that Earth is constantly moving through material from other stars.
The findings underscore both the scientific opportunity and the need for vigilance.