Two Robust Interstellar Meteor Candidates in the Post-2018 CNEOS Fireball Database
Abstract
We report the identification of two previously unrecognized interstellar meteor candidates in the NASA CNEOS fireball database. Using the empirically calibrated low-discrepancy uncertainty model of Pe\~na-Asensio et al.\ (2025) for post-2018 CNEOS velocity accuracy (1: speed 0.55~km~s, right ascension 1.35, declination 0.84), we transform CNEOS velocity vectors to heliocentric orbits and assess interstellar candidacy via -draw Monte Carlo simulations. Two post-2018 events have heliocentric speeds robustly exceeding the Solar System escape speed. CNEOS-22 (2022-07-28; 6.0S, 86.9W; eastern tropical Pacific) has ~km~s, exceeding escape by ~km~s (), with interstellar speed ~km~s. CNEOS-25 (2025-02-12; 73.4N, 49.3E; Barents Sea) has ~km~s, exceeding escape by ~km~s (), with ~km~s. For both events, none of realizations yield a gravitationally bound orbit (). The adopted error model would need to underestimate the true uncertainties by factors of 5--9 for either candidate to be marginally bound.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.08956,
title = {Two Robust Interstellar Meteor Candidates in the Post-2018 CNEOS Fireball Database},
author = {Richard Cloete and Abraham Loeb},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.08956},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Submitted for peer-review to APJ Letters