Harvard Astronomer Wants To Retrieve Interstellar Object He Believes Is On Ocean Floor

Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb is proposing a mission deep into the Pacific Ocean to uncover an interstellar object that appears to have crashed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014.

“Our discovery of an interstellar meteor heralds a new research frontier,” Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb wrote with theoretical astrophysicist Amir Siraj in an essay for The Debrief.

The two scientists discovered records of the meteor.  After years in academic limbo, its existence and off-world origin were finally confirmed by the US government.

Now they want to determine whether it may contain artificial alien technology.

“The fundamental question is whether any interstellar meteor might indicate a composition that is unambiguously artificial in origin?” Loeb said. “Better still, perhaps some technological components would survive the impact.”

The discovery and confirmation of the object, dubbed CNEOS-2014-01-08 for the date it’s believed to have crashed into the Pacific Ocean, could represent a new paradigm “in which the Earth serves as a fishing net for massive interstellar objects,” according to Loeb.

6/ “I had the pleasure of signing a memo with @ussfspoc’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Mozer, to confirm that a previously-detected interstellar object was indeed an interstellar object, a confirmation that assisted the broader astronomical community.” pic.twitter.com/PGlIOnCSrW

— U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) April 7, 2022

In the essay he expounds that such a retrieval expedition could be achieved using “scooping” magnets that would explore the roughly 10 square kilometer region of the Pacific Ocean where the object is believed to have landed.

“My dream is to press some buttons on a functional piece of equipment that was manufactured outside of Earth,” the astronomer added.Loeb is one of the world’s foremost believers in extraterrestrials. 

He’s set to unveil an AI-enabled telescope at Harvard that will work to detect UFOs.