That's why Loeb's pushing for a new branch of astronomy, "space archaeology," to hunt for the biological and technological signatures of extraterrestrials.
Loeb, for his part, protests a "culture of bullying" in the academy that punishes those who question orthodoxy-just as Galileo was punished when he proposed the Earth was not the center of the universe.Ĭompared to speculative yet respected branches of theoretical physics-such as looking for dark matter or multiverses-the search for alien life is a far more commonsense avenue to pursue, he said. Writing in Forbes, astrophysicist Ethan Siegel called Loeb a "once-respected scientist" who, having failed to convince his peers of his arguments, had taken to pandering to the public. Loeb's ideas have placed him at odds with fellow astronomers. Like a trip wire left by an intelligent lifeform, waiting to be triggered by a star system. "Perhaps 'Oumuamua was like a buoy resting in the expanse of the universe," writes Loeb. It didn't seem to be an ordinary rock, because after slingshotting around the Sun, it sped up and deviated from the expected trajectory, propelled by a mysterious force.Īvi Loeb believes 'Oumuamuah could be a lightsail, such as those sent into space by the Plantary Society and seen in this artist's rendering
In October 2017, astronomers observed an object moving so quickly, it could only have come from another star-the first recorded interstellar interloper. Loeb, 58, lays out the argument for the alien origins of the object named 'Oumuamua-"scout" in Hawaiian- in "Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth." "The correct approach is to be modest and say: 'We're nothing special, there are lots of other cultures out there, and we just need to find them.'" "Thinking that we are unique and special and privileged is arrogant," he told AFP in a video call.
Loeb's stellar credentials-he was the longest-serving chair of astronomy at Harvard, has published hundreds of pioneering papers, and has collaborated with greats like the late Stephen Hawking-make him difficult to dismiss outright. Sound kooky? Avi Loeb says the evidence holds otherwise, and is convinced his peers in the scientific community are so consumed by groupthink they're unwilling to wield Occam's razor. That's the premise of a new book by a top astronomer, who argues that the simplest and best explanation for the highly unusual characteristics of an interstellar object that sped through our solar system in 2017 is that it was alien technology.
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