CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Have you ever wondered if extraterrestrials have roamed the earth?
Avi Loeb has, and the renowned Harvard physicist says he now has proof of it.
Loeb, who is head of the Galileo Project and founding director of Harvard University’s Black Hole Initiative, said for the first time in history, scientists have “analyzed materials from a meter-size object that originated from outside the solar system.”
“The object lit up the sky over the Pacific Ocean nearly a decade ago and its bright fireball was tracked by US government satellites,” Loeb said in a recent blog post.
Loeb headed the interstellar expedition team of the Galileo Project, which just completed the early analysis of 57 spherules from the crash site of the first recognized interstellar meteor, IM1, he said.
“Five of these millimeter-size marbles originated as molten droplets from the surface of IM1 when it was exposed to the immense heat from the fireball generated by its friction on air on January 8, 2014,” Loeb said.
Altogether, about 700 spherules were collected by the expedition led by Loeb to the Pacific Ocean earlier this summer, from June 14 to June 28, he said.
He shares technical details and supporting information in the team’s scientific paper. He also details his daily journey in 44 diary reports.
“The success of the expedition was not a chance coincidence. We were blessed with exceptional team members who worked selflessly to accomplish this outcome. Our collective experience feels like a soccer team after a winning game. All team members contributed professionally and constructively,” Loeb said in his blog post.
“The interstellar origin of IM1 was established at the 99.999% confidence based on velocity measurements by US government satellites, as confirmed in a formal letter from the US Space Command to NASA,” Loeb said. “The fireball light curve showed three flares, separated by a tenth of a second from each other. Prior to entering the solar system, IM1 was moving at a speed of 60 kilometers per second relative to the Local Standard of Rest of the Milky-Way galaxy, faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the Sun.”
“Based on the fact that it maintained its integrity at an impact speed on Earth of 45 kilometers per second down to an elevation of 17 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean, its material strength must have been tougher than all 272 space rocks documented by NASA in the CNEOS meteor catalog, including the 5% minority of them which are iron meteorites,” Loeb said.
The retrieved spherules “are being analyzed by the best instruments in the world within four laboratories,” at Harvard University, UC Berkeley, the Bruker Corporation, and the University of Technology in Papua New Guinea, whose Vice Chancellor signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Harvard University to partner on the expedition research, Loeb said.
In his blog post, Loeb summarized his efforts to analyze the universe, and to uncover what lies beyond what humans can see.
During a routine jog at sunrise, he wrote, “I was asked: ‘Are you running away from something or towards something?’ My answer was: ‘Both. I am running away from colleagues who have strong opinions without seeking evidence, and I am running towards a higher intelligence in interstellar space.’”
Extraterrestrial buffs can read more on the subject in Loeb’s books. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021.
His new book, titled “Interstellar”, went on sale Tuesday.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
©2023 Cox Media Group