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Name: Extraterrestrial
Rating: 4.5 (150 reviews)
Author: Avi Loeb

Avi Loeb

The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

4.5 (150 Bewertungen)

25 Min.

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What’s in it for me? A bold interpretation of recent discoveries.

In late 2017, the world was rocked by a stunning announcement. Scientists at the Haleakalā Observatory in Hawaii had detected an unusual object passing through our solar system – the first discovery of its kind. They named the object ‘Oumuamua. But , what exactly was this strange object? No one knows for sure, but the esteemed Harvard astronomy professor Avi Loeb has a theory: ‘Oumuamua is a piece of extraterrestrial technology.

Drawing on Loeb’s years of experience and keen, imaginative scientific eye, these blinks lay out the professor’s controversial argument that ‘Oumuamua could be an artificial probe sent to observe our solar system. Along the way, you’ll learn what makes this object so unusual and what its visit means for our understanding of the universe.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

what the word ‘Oumuamua means;
why theoretical physics gets all the attention; and
how we might spread humanity across the galaxy.

‘Oumuamua is unusual for visiting from beyond our solar system.

October 19, 2017. The astronomer Robert Weryk is poring through data collected by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS for short, a network of telescopes that sits atop the mountains of Maui, in Hawaii. As he looks at the day’s observations, he notices something strange.

Pan-STARRS has picked up an object jetting away from the Sun at 58,900 miles per hour. At such speeds, the object is set to soon leave our solar system forever. Yet, the object’s trajectory is even more interesting. Judging by its path, it appears that it must have come from outside our solar system!

Weryk is stunned. He’s just stumbled upon the first interstellar object ever detected by mankind.

The key message here is: ‘Oumuamua is unusual for visiting from beyond our solar system.

When Weryk delivered the news of his discovery to the International Astronomical Union, they dubbed the object ‘Oumuamua. This Hawaiian word roughly translates to “a messenger from afar arriving first,” or more simply, “scout.” It’s a fitting name, as ‘Oumuamua is the first nearby object – astronomically speaking – ever detected that does not have origins within our solar system.

So, if ‘Oumuamua isn’t a local, where is it from? Well, we don’t know exactly. What we do know is that it comes from the direction of Vega, a star located about 25 light-years away. We also know that it entered our solar system on a hyperbolic trajectory. This means that it doesn’t orbit the Sun like an asteroid or comet, but instead, it comes from the outer reaches of space, passes by the Sun once, and then escapes off into space again.

Prior to detecting ‘Oumuamua, astronomers had observed both objects within our solar system and objects very far away, like distant stars and planets. Yet, they had never seen an item from interstellar space pass through our solar neighborhood. Of course, they knew it was possible. Humans themselves have already launched five objects into interstellar space, including the Voyager, Pioneer, and New Horizons space probes.

Since this initial discovery, scientists working at Pan-STARRS have already discovered several more interstellar objects swinging by our Sun. Yet, ‘Oumuamua still stands out – and not simply because it was the first object found. In fact, ‘Oumuamua has many particular qualities and unusual traits that leave scientists puzzled. We’ll look at those in the next blink.

‘Oumuamua doesn’t look or act like any known object.

Imagine you’re a detective. For your next assignment, you’re tasked with discovering all you can about a certain mysterious object. But there’s a catch. You can’t examine the object. Not only is there no clear picture to look at, but the item itself has left the solar system forever.

This is the challenge facing astronomers studying ‘Oumuamua. When scientists first spotted it, ‘Oumuamua was already speeding away. The scientific community had only 11 days to collect data about the ever-distant enigma. Even so, the collected data raised more questions than answers.

There’s a real possibility that ‘Oumuamua is alien technology.

It’s 17 months before ‘Oumuamua graced our solar system, and astrophysicist Avi Loeb is hard at work on a goat farm in rural Israel. However, Loeb isn’t tending to the livestock. He’s putting the finishing touches to a bold proposal.

It’s called the Starshot Initiative. This plan outlines a realistic way for humanity to send a probe to Alpha Centauri, a star system some four light-years away. The probe would be powered by a lightsail, a theoretical technology that harnesses the power of light just as a ship’s sail captures the wind here on Earth.

Scientists are irrationally opposed to the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

By now, it’s clear that ‘Oumuamua is an exceptionally strange object. Yet, if we consider ‘Oumuamua’s velocity-position, it becomes even stranger.

Every object in the galaxy is moving. An object’s velocity-position is its movement as compared to all other objects. Some velocity-positions are faster, others are slower, and amazingly, ‘Oumuamua’s was nearly exactly average. It occupied something called the local standard of rest, meaning that on a galactic scale, it was essential standing still.

‘Oumuamua could be a probe or just extraterrestrial garbage.

Gaze up at the sky on a clear night. Above you, thousands of stars twinkle through the Earth’s atmosphere. Amazingly, this shimmering array is only a small fraction of our galaxy, which is home to billions of stars. Beyond that, other galaxies contain billions more.

The universe is expansive in size, but it’s deep in time, too. Recent estimates place it at more than 13 billion years old. Given these dimensions, it’s inconceivable that other life hasn’t arisen out there, somewhere, at some time.

We should examine the universe for all signs of life, both past and present.

It’s three to four billion years ago. Here on Earth, a swirling stew of proteins and carbohydrates begin to mix and assemble into complex structures. Over time, these biomolecules develop metabolisms and start to replicate. Voilà, life!

Now, when we search for extraterrestrial life, we take this familiar story as a starting point. We look for planets with similar conditions to Earth. That is, planets with similar size, temperature, or similar stars to orbit. It’s not a bad idea. After all, we understand life on Earth and can apply that knowledge to seek life elsewhere.

‘Oumuamua should wake us up to the unlimited potential of humanity.

OK, it’s finally happened. At last, humanity has detected definitive, unambiguous evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Maybe it’s a radio communication picked up by SETI. Or, perhaps, it’s another interstellar object drifting through the solar system. Either way, it’s all over the news.

In this scenario, are we ready to respond appropriately? Maybe; maybe not.

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Worum geht es in Extraterrestrial?

Extraterrestrial (2021) is an examination of ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever detected. This provocative overview argues that this strange object could be a piece of alien technology.

Bestes Zitat aus Extraterrestrial

If we dont merely entertain this thought but embrace it, we find ourselves confronting amazing possibilities.

—Avi Loeb

Wer Extraterrestrial lesen sollte

Amateur astronomers fascinated by ‘Oumuamua
Sci-fi fans interested in a little science fact
Anyone who wants to believe in life beyond Earth

Über den Autor

Avi Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University, chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy, and chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He has authored more than 700 scientific papers on space, astronomy, and astrophysics.

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