And here I didn't even consider the chance that it was an elaborate ruse to grab a punch of rare-earth metals. Apparently my heavy diet of sci-fi and techno thrillers hasn't trained me well enough yet. ;)

These are not rare earths, rare earths are a family of chemically similar elements close together in the periodic table that are not actually that rare geologically. Platinum and iridium are just rare elements.

I love how this would be the exact inverse of the Project Azorian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_Explorer

Theres a great documentary about that by the name 'Azorian - The Raising of The K129 on Amazon' - I think I bought it for $1 - you should give it a watch if you haven't yet.

Or just a chunk of titanium. It's only made in novas and supernovas so having an abnormal trajectory, and speed only supports the theory. A bunch of titanium slapped onto some rock and then later breaks off or something.

My understanding is that anything heavier than iron is made by supernovae, so the same could be said of the majority of elements.

Right, but titanium is stronger than steel, let alone iron.

>When compared to steel in a strength-to-weight ratio, titanium is far superior, as it is as strong as steel but 45% lighter. In fact, titanium has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of all known metals.

There's a reason cherry picked titanium. :)

Strength doesn't matter here as much as melting point. When they say tougher than Iron, I imagine they mean it ablated less in the atmosphere. I don't know what elements that might mean. Certainly not platinum group metals. Tungsten possibly. Carbon or diamond. Or alien tech.

Edit: "Based on the speed of the meteor and how much of the object burned upon entry, Loeb determined that it must be made of a material that is tougher than iron."

Yup.

As your quote says, titanium has a higher strength to weight ratio. It's not necessarily stronger, and it's not necessarily "tougher" against the circumstances described than whatever type of iron they think it might be. The meteor isn't out to minimize weight. The strength to weight ratio isn't relavent here at all and does not make titanium more likely to survive until the object comes to rest on Earth.

I wonder if titanium would largely burn in the atmosphere. Titanium fires are a thing in supersonic aviation.

unobtanium

Maybe it's prefabulated amulite?

Perfect! I need more for my baseplates.

this gave a good chuckle

Or re-entry rocket boosters

Those would not be travelling at extra-solar speeds.