Harvard professor Avi Loeb has sparked controversy by suggesting that the interstellar object 'Oumuamua may be evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. In his new book, Extraterrestrial, Loeb argues that the object's unusual characteristics—such as its elongated shape, lack of a cometary tail, and unexplained acceleration—point to an artificial origin. He believes the scientific community's reluctance to consider this possibility stems from fear and conservatism.
Discovered on 19 October 2017 by astronomers at the University of Hawaii, 'Oumuamua was the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system. It was shiny, elongated, and lacked the gassy tail typical of comets. Loeb and his colleague Shmuel Bialy proposed that it was a thin, pancake-shaped sail propelled by solar radiation, something nature could not produce. They published their hypothesis in The Astrophysical Journal Letters in 2018.
Loeb, the Frank B Baird Jr Professor of Science at Harvard, argues that science should follow the evidence without political bias. He notes that the object has already left the solar system and cannot be re-examined, but insists that considering technological debris from other civilisations is a valid scientific approach. He calls for more open-mindedness in the search for extraterrestrial life.
