Tag: Astronomy

Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist and professor at Harvard, has claimed that some spherules retrieved from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in June show ‘extremely high abundances’ of a composition of heavy elements not known to man. However, some in the scientific community remain sceptical

A controversial Harvard professor has claimed to have found the first-ever alien objects on Earth.

Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist and professor at Harvard, has claimed to have found particles on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean made of an alloy not seen on Earth.

“This is a historic discovery because it represents the first time that humans put their hand on materials from a large object that arrived on Earth from outside the solar system,” Loeb wrote on Tuesday on Medium.

“The success of the expedition illustrates the value of taking risks in science despite all odds as an opportunity for discovering new knowledge.”

But has Loeb, who was the longest-serving chair of astronomy at Harvard University, actually found discovered objects?

Let’s take a closer look:

What happened?

As per USA Today, a meteor burned up the Earth’s atmosphere in January 2014.

The meteor, which exploded into fragments, went down around 100 kilometers off the coast of Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

But no one took note of it for the next few years – until Loeb and an undergraduate at Harvard drew attention to it in 2019 and published research on it.

Then, in 2022, US Space Command dropped a bombshell in a letter to NASA – the meteor was likely from another solar system.

As per Moneycontrol, Loeb and his team then determined that IM1 was tougher than all the meteors in NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) catalogue.

Loeb then declared that he would attempt to retrieve the fragments of the meteor from the ocean floor.

“Intrigued by this conclusion, I established a team that designed a two-week expedition to search for the meteor fragments at a depth of 1.7 kilometers on the ocean floor,” Loeb said.

Loeb and his team secured $1.5 million of funds for the expedition from entrepreneur Charles Hoskinson.

Loeb and his team in June employed EYOS Expeditions and set off in a boat named the Silver Star bound for Papa New Guinea.

As per BBC, Loeb used a device he claimed to have invented called the “interstellar hook” to collect potential samples off the ocean floor.

As per The New York Times, the team dragged this ‘interstellar hook’ across the seafloor for weeks.

They found glimmering beads which were under a millimetre in diameter.

Loeb and his team claimed to have found 700 spherules at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, as per Jerusalem Post.

Thus far, 57 of them have been analysed.

What is Loeb claiming?

Loeb is claiming that early examination shows that some of the spherules have “extremely high abundances” of a composition of heavy elements never been seen before, as per USA Today.

Researchers claim that the composition of Beryllium, Lanthanum and Uranium – which they have named “BeLaU” – does not match either terrestrial alloys found on the Earth or fallout from nuclear explosions.