A top scientist is planning a journey to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in search of what he claims to be extraterrestrial technology.
Avi Loeb, a controversial astrophysicist, thinks an interplanetary object that crashed into Earth in 2014 was a spaceship.
A study issued last week by the US Space Command (USSC) revealed that the object originated from another star system.
The agency determined that the projectile – which flashed across the sky near the Papua New Guinean island of Manus – was a meteor.
Prof. Loeb, on the other hand, is not having any of it. He asserted on Wednesday that the object may have been developed by extraterrestrials.
“Our discovery of an interstellar meteor heralds a new research frontier,” the Harvard astronomer wrote in an essay for The Debrief. “The fundamental question is whether any interstellar meteor might indicate a composition that is unambiguously artificial in origin. Better still, perhaps some technological components would survive the impact.”
Prof. Loeb has spent decades studying astronomy and has lately focused on the potential of extraterrestrial life.
His bold statements routinely make news, and he has been criticized by colleagues for his crazy alien notions.
Prof. Loeb, in collaboration with a Harvard undergraduate, was the astronomer who detected the object as interstellar a few years ago.
The two wrote a paper on it but were advised not to publish it since their study included the use of sensitive government data.
Following confirmation by the USSC on April 7, Loeb has called for an expedition to locate whatever remains of the interstellar object.
He emphasized in his article that a recovery trip may be accomplished by utilizing "scooping" magnets to examine the ten-square-kilometer area of the Pacific Ocean where the item is believed to have landed.
“My dream is to press some buttons on a functional piece of equipment that was manufactured outside of Earth,” he added.
The famous astrophysicist is not unfamiliar with controversy.
He has conducted interesting research on black holes, space radiation, the early cosmos, and a variety of other subjects relevant to his area.
His attention has shifted over the last decade to a more difficult subject: the likelihood that Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials.
Prof. Loeb has asserted repeatedly that Oumuamua — an interstellar object that sped past the Solar System in 2017 – was extraterrestrial technology.
He defended the contentious remarks – which garnered him global attention – in a book released last year.
“What would happen if a caveman saw a cellphone?” Loeb wrote. “He’s seen rocks all his life, and he would have thought it was just a shiny rock.”
He took fault with astronomers who argued that the object was a comet, saying it was akin to letting “the familiar to define what we might discover.”
Loeb is the director of the Galileo Project, which aims to construct a network of powerful telescopes capable of scanning the sky for signs of extraterrestrial life.
Reference(s): The Debrief, Alien Object Crashed Into Earth
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