A Harvard astrophysicist specializing in the search for extraterrestrial life, Professor Avi Loeb, has announced research that could provide evidence of intelligent alien existence, with publication expected in the coming month.
Loeb is at the forefront of analyzing the recovered fragments of the IM1 meteor, which broke apart over the Pacific near Manus Island, around 260 miles from Papua New Guinea, in January 2014.
The trajectory and speed of IM1 were strong indications that the object had an interstellar origin. Loeb is now working to ascertain if the object was artificially created by analyzing tiny fragments collected from the ocean floor. On Monday, He told Fox News, ‘We are currently examining the composition of the molten droplets that separated from this object as it encountered the fireball it created while traversing the atmosphere.’
Though Loeb has teased exciting results, he has not yet disclosed details, awaiting their compilation into a scientific paper, expected to be available to the public in a month or so.
Loeb and other experts, including a former student and scientists from the U.S. Space Command, have analyzed the 50 fragments, mostly iron spheres. Their findings indicate the likelihood that the object originated outside our solar system.
Loeb stated, ‘Within a month or so, we are discovering what this meteor was made of and whether it might be technological.’
He has not ruled out the possibility that IM1, roughly 3 feet in diameter and about half a ton in weight as it incinerated through the Earth’s atmosphere, leaving behind tiny molten metal droplets, could have been an alien probe.
The object’s size is comparable to human-made space probes now journeying into deep space, such as the two Voyager spacecraft, whose high-gain antennas are up to 12 feet long.
Voyager 2, now an interstellar object over 12.3 billion miles from Earth and still transmitting its ‘heartbeat signal’ to NASA, presents an interesting comparison. Loeb noted, ‘If it’s something like one of our space probe spacecraft colliding with the planet, to us it would appear as a meteor burning up in the atmosphere. We will try our best to find out.’
