Object that zoomed through Earth likely came from an alien world, Harvard professor claims

Cambridge, Massachusetts – A professor from Harvard University says we are probably not alone in the universe. Astronomer Avi Loeb’s new book “Extraterrestrial” examines the 2017 flyby of a space object he believes was really out of this world.

“At first, people thought, ‘Well, it must be a rock, just like the asteroids or comets we’ve seen in the solar system before,'” Loeb told CBSN Boston’s Paula Ebben. “But as they have more data on it, it looks really weird.”

The cigar-shaped object seen through telescopes was called “Oumuamua” – meaning “a messenger reaching from a distant past” in Hawaiian.

It was 10 times as long as it was wide and traveled at speeds of 196,000 mph, researchers said at the time.

“It didn’t look like a comet, but it kind of behaved like something that has an extra boost,” Loeb said.

NASA confirmed that it is “the first object ever seen in our solar system known to have come from elsewhere,” but said its origin is unknown.

Loeb argues in his book that the object was likely debris from advanced alien technology – space junk many light years away. It could be some sort of “light sail” propelled by sunlight, a technology that humans are currently developing for space exploration.

“It is possible that there is a lot of space junk or it may be a probe,” he said. “We don’t know because we haven’t gathered enough data, not enough evidence, and I just warn everyone to look for such objects so that the next time one comes by, we’ll look more closely.”

Loeb said it is time for researchers to look for possible “messages in a bottle” like Oumuamua instead of just looking for radio signals as evidence of other civilizations.

He said his ideas are currently unpopular in the scientific community – talking about potential alien intelligence is “out of the mainstream, and it shouldn’t be”.

“We need to be open-minded and look for evidence rather than assume that everything we see in the sky must be stones,” he said.

For those who doubt the existence of aliens, Loeb says to consider the odds.

“We know that half of the sun-like stars have a planet the size of Earth about the same distance from the star, so they can have liquid water on the surface – that’s the chemistry of life,” he said.

“That means if you roll the dice billions of times in the Milky Way, we probably aren’t alone, and besides, we’re probably not the sharpest cookie in the pot, the smartest kid around.”