The Harvard professor, Avi Loeb, is no stranger to controversy.
For years now he has made headlines for his views on our search for alien life.
Loeb is perhaps most famous for his claim that the cigar shaped ‘Oumuamua object seen
tracking through the solar system in 2017 could be an alien ship, rather than just an
unusual meteor as most mainstream astronomers say.
However, in 2022, it’s another of Loeb’s ideas that has gained traction…
with the physicist suggesting that a different ship (or, at least, a different piece of alien
technology) may have already crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
So, this is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; did alien tech
really crash into the Pacific?
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The event at the center of Avi Loeb’s latest theory was initially reported as a meteor
strike, close to Papua New Guinea, on January 8th, 2014.
A bright, blazing ball of something tore across the sky and plummeted into the ocean that
day, causing quite a stir at the time.
Fast forward to 2022, however, and that apparent meteor has now taken on even greater significance
as officials at the US Space Command have announced that they now believe it was of
interstellar origin.
If true, it means that we encountered our first known interstellar object more than
three years before we had (until this point) believed.
The infamous ‘Oumuamua object - that long, thin, tumbling piece of seeming space rock
detected in 2017 - had (until now) been thought of as the first interstellar object that we’d
ever knowingly seen.
But now, if the message coming out of Space Command is right, then actually it’s the
Papua New Guinea meteor that has that distinction.
Regardless, no one knows where the meteor is today.
It smashed into the water eight years ago, hurtled toward the ocean floor, and presumably
settled there, buried in Earth’s oceanic crust.
Avi Loeb, however, is campaigning for us to find out more.
He wants an expedition to head into the Pacific, specifically to look for it.
Reason being that Loeb feels that what happened over Papua New Guinea in 2014 perhaps wasn’t
a meteor… but was in fact the arrival of a piece of alien technology.
A ship, probe, or device of some kind that if it is interstellar in origin is a long
way from home.
Whatever it was, the object wasn’t exactly massive… and is thought to have measured
just two or three feet across.
So, finding it in the vast expanse of the Pacific could certainly prove difficult.
But, for Loeb, it seems, the search should all be worth it, if it means uncovering the
world’s first genuinely alien machine.
It was actually Loeb and Harvard student Amir Siraj who had pushed for the object to be
re-studied as a possible interstellar arrival of any kind, in the first place.
Initially it had been deemed a candidate for something from outside the solar system because
of its reportedly unusually high speed and apparent trajectory when it smashed into our
planet.
Using the information available, Loeb, Siraj and others suggested that it meant that this
particular thing came from much further afield than most other things do from space.
And now, the US Space Command agrees with them.
But still, it’s quite a significant step to take from identifying this object as an
interstellar rock… to suggesting that it could be artificial.
That it could be alien by design.
The discovery of any piece of technology not of this world would finally confirm an answer
to one of modern science’s central debates; proving once and for all that we are not alone.
That there are other creatures, intelligences, and perhaps whole civilizations out there,
and that “life on Earth” isn’t the only way of doing things.
In a future time when Loeb does successfully front an expedition to the Pacific Ocean near
Papua New Guinea, when that expedition recovers the object in question, and it is shown to
be extraterrestrial tech…
well, it’s perhaps no exaggeration to say that humanity will have reached a defining
point in its history.
A “before and after” moment that triggers a whole new age for Earth and our species.
However, we’re still a long way away from that, right now.
At present, all we really have to go on are the suggestions made by Loeb, Siraj and their
supporters.
While we now know that the 2014 “meteor” was in fact the first interstellar object
ever discovered, which in itself is pretty incredible…
there’s not a lot more that mainstream science has to say about it.
When it blazed over the Pacific in 2014, it’s not as though there were accompanying reports
of flashing (obviously artificial) lights, or of moving (obviously motorized) wings,
or even of waving (obviously alien) pilots.
Or, at least, if there were UFO-like reports attached to it, then they haven’t reached
public attention.
All that we really know is that a fireball erupted in the sky for a few seconds, and
then disappeared into the water.
It was all over, quite literally, as quick as a flash.
For Loeb, though, it seems the small size and brevity of this object is also of significance.
Writing about it on “The Debrief”, he directly compares it to our former “first
interstellar object”, saying; “the size scale is a hundred times smaller than ‘Oumuamua”.
Loeb further explains that ‘Oumuamua was discovered in a totally different way, picked
up (as it was) by the Pan STARRS telescope in Hawaii, while the 2014 object (as it was
literally in Earth’s atmosphere) could’ve been clocked by satellite.
The broad idea, then, is that so many more of these could be being missed, both on Earth
and in the wider solar system.
Leading Loeb to compare our search for them to a “fishing expedition”.
Only, perhaps this is one where we should be trying to find the smallest just as ardently
as we seek the bigger fish.
From here, it’s unclear how successful Loeb will be in achieving his goal of retrieving
what’s currently buried beneath the Pacific Ocean.
In the same “Debrief” article, he claims that “the impact region [in the Ocean] is
uncertain to within ten kilometers”… but that scouring the water until it’s found
“is feasible”.
Due to his reputation for beating against the mainstream, Loeb has been criticized by
other scientists before now.
His ideas and theories often don’t match up with the official line.
But, while it’s true that this latest claim toward hidden alien tech has won him plenty
of sensational headlines… he seemingly remains determined to pursue the idea that aliens
are already here.
We humans have a long history of musing over what the bright flashes that occasionally
speed across our skies could mean.
At one point they were widely interpreted as being divine in nature, caused by the gods,
or sent from Heaven itself.
In more modern times, science has a much surer grasp on what asteroids, meteors, and space
debris really is.
We know that, with our planet suspended in an endless universe, we should expect the
odd piece of rock to intersect with us every now and then.
But here, the conversation takes an altogether different direction again.
And while Loeb isn’t suggesting that the 2014 object could be the work of a god…
he is debating whether it might’ve come from another being.
An alien, extraterrestrial, and perhaps one that’s significantly more advanced than
we are.
After all, for all our inspiring achievements in space up until now, we haven’t yet crashed
anything into an interstellar planet.
Whether or not that’s what we’re facing here remains to be seen.
What’s your verdict on the 2014 mystery object that’s currently resting somewhere
in the deep sea on Earth?
Was it just a piece of rock that made an extremely long journey, or might it be a piece of ET
machinery that (deliberately or not) has breached our world?
The search for alien life goes on, but could we one day be remembering this event as the
breakthrough moment?
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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