Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb has just concluded a $1.5 million expedition that lasted two weeks. The project led him to the depth of the Pacific Ocean where he is believed to have uncovered the remains of the first confirmed interstellar object to land on Earth.
In 2014, a mysterious meteor dubbed IM1 crashed off the coast of Papua, New Guinness and was believed to have come from interstellar space. Loeb thought that it could be some form of extraterrestrial technology. The 61-year-old professor garnered attention when he declared that the strange interstellar object ʻOumuamua’ could be an extraterrestrial object passing Earth.
Loeb oversaw a team of deep-sea explorers who found 50 spherules–molten droplets, about half a millimetre in diameter. These tiny objects are shed from meteorites entering and burning through the Earth’s atmosphere.
Loeb’s team collected 35 milligrams of this promising material by dragging a large magnetic sled across the surface of the ocean. The astrophysicist believes that the spherules are most likely made from a steel-titanium alloy–a material much stronger than the usual iron found in typical meteors. They can potentially be the product of an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation or have interstellar origins. Further testing is required.
On Tuesday, the ‘alien hunter of Harvard’ updated his ongoing Medium blog. “As molten droplets from a fireball, they carry information about the elemental and isotopic composition of the first recognized interstellar meteor,” Loeb wrote, in reference to his project.
“The spherules were found primarily along the most likely path of IM1 and not in control regions far from it,” read his blog. “In the coming weeks, we will analyze their elemental and isotopic composition and report our data in a paper submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.”
Avi Loeb previously chaired Harvard’s astronomy department from 2011-2020. He now leads the university’s Galileo project which aims to establish open-sourced observatories across the world. These observatories will then search for any signs of UFOs and interstellar objects.
The controversial scientist has long defended his belief that aliens have visited Earth. In 2021, he published his best-selling book,Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. In the book, he claimed that ‘Oumuamua’ could only be an interstellar technology built by aliens. The huge pancake-shaped rock, ‘Oumuamua’ was visible to scientists in 2017 for around 11 days.
