<story><title>A meteor or alien tech: Harvard professor plans UFO expedition</title><url>https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/harvard-professor-believes-alien-tech-could-have-crashed-into-the-pacific-ocean-and-he-wants-to-find-it/2805992/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>headelf</author><text>If it&amp;#x27;s tougher than iron, why are they planning to use a magnet to retrieve it?</text></item><item><author>015a</author><text>To not bury the lead: His team studied data the government made available from military missile tracking systems, which conveniently also false-positives on asteroids. There was one in 2014 which slammed into the Pacific Ocean at a speed at least twice that of the speed stars around us move relative to the sun, which makes it likely to be extra-solar. Based on that speed &amp;amp; how much burned upon entry, they concluded its material must be tougher than iron. They&amp;#x27;re planning an expedition to the oceanic area around Papa New Guinea, mostly funded through private donations, to recover the object.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ericlewis</author><text>I suppose because they didn&amp;#x27;t say it was less magnetic than iron?</text></comment>
<story><title>A meteor or alien tech: Harvard professor plans UFO expedition</title><url>https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/harvard-professor-believes-alien-tech-could-have-crashed-into-the-pacific-ocean-and-he-wants-to-find-it/2805992/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>headelf</author><text>If it&amp;#x27;s tougher than iron, why are they planning to use a magnet to retrieve it?</text></item><item><author>015a</author><text>To not bury the lead: His team studied data the government made available from military missile tracking systems, which conveniently also false-positives on asteroids. There was one in 2014 which slammed into the Pacific Ocean at a speed at least twice that of the speed stars around us move relative to the sun, which makes it likely to be extra-solar. Based on that speed &amp;amp; how much burned upon entry, they concluded its material must be tougher than iron. They&amp;#x27;re planning an expedition to the oceanic area around Papa New Guinea, mostly funded through private donations, to recover the object.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eloff</author><text>This seems a reasonable question to me, not having read the article. IIRC from grade school days, only a few metallic elements are magnetic. Iron, nickel, cobalt, and some rare earth metals. That was a long time ago and doubtless oversimplified, but please do enlighten me why it would be expected to be magnetic?&lt;p&gt;It seems like they must still be assuming it&amp;#x27;s largely made of Iron.</text></comment>