Harvard astronomer argues that an alien vessel paid us a visit

Shafaq News/ "Discovering there's intelligent life beyond our planet could be the most transformative event in human history -- but what if scientists decided to collectively ignore evidence suggesting it already happened?" That's the premise of a new book by a top astronomer, who argues that the most straightforward 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.

Avi Loeb is convinced that his peers in the scientific community are so consumed by groupthink they're unwilling to wield Occam's razor.

"Thinking that we are unique and special and privileged is arrogant," he told AFP in a video call.

"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."

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."

In October 2017, astronomers observed an object moving so quickly. It could only have come from another star -- the first recorded interstellar interloper.

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.

This could be easily explained if it was a comet expelling gas and debris -- but there was no visible evidence of this "outgassing."

The traveler also tumbled strangely -- as inferred by how it got brighter and dimmer in scientists' telescopes. It was unusually luminous, possibly suggesting it was made from a bright metal.

To explain what happened, astronomers had to come up with novel theories, such as that it was made of hydrogen ice and would therefore not have visible trails, or that it disintegrated into a dust cloud.

"These ideas that came to explain specific properties of 'Oumuamua always involve something that we have never seen before," said Loeb.

"If that's the direction we are taking, then why not contemplate an artificial origin?"

'Oumuamua was never photographed close-up during its brief sojourn -- we only learned of its existence once it was already on its way out of our solar system.

Only two shapes fit the peculiarities observed -- long and thin like a cigar, or flat and round like a pancake, almost razor-thin.

Loeb says simulations favor the latter and believes the object was deliberately crafted as a light sail propelled by stellar radiation.

Another oddity was the way the object moved -- compounding the strangeness of its passage.

Before encountering our Sun, 'Oumuamua was "at rest" relative to nearby stars -- statistically very rare. Rather than think of it as a vessel hurtling through space, from the object's perspective, our solar system slammed into it.

Loeb's ideas have placed him at odds with fellow astronomers.

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, 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.

Compared 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 common sense avenue to pursue, he said.

That's why Loeb's pushing for a new branch of astronomy, "space archaeology," to hunt for the biological and technological signatures of extraterrestrials.

It is noteworthy that Loeb spent his childhood on an Israeli farm reading philosophy and pondering life's big questions.