The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
1–10 of 126 posts
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#2"That Harvard Astronomer" is Avi Loeb.
Loeb was recently a guest on the Lex Fridman podcast where he talked about Oumuamua amongst other things. [0] I found his view on the subject fascinating and his perspective on science refreshing.
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#3"That Harvard Astronomer" is Avi Loeb. Loeb was recently a guest on the Lex Fridman podcast where he talked about Oumuamua amongst other things. [0] I found his view on the subject fascinating and his perspective on science refreshing. [0] https://lexfridman.com/avi-loeb/
He was interviewed for the Kotke Ride Home podcast. He has a book coming out about Oumuamua. I will probably buy the book because Loeb is apparently brilliant. His evaluation of Oumuamua is very interesting.
BUT the data about Oumuamua is really really tiny. The science of interstellar objects is nascent. Other than to say "If it is a natural object it is super-strange" I am not sure what else there is to say.
In the interview he was articulating theories about it being a cosmic "buoy." So I am anticipating a couple chapters of solid science followed by a lot of speculation, even if it is highly informed speculation.
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#4I'd gotten the impression that Loeb isn't trying to convince the public and scientific community that it was an alien probe so much as is he trying to show it could have been.
I think is agenda is to get the community looking for these things more often, perhaps out of some disappointment that if it had been an actual probe (a la "Rendezvous with Rama"), we'd already have missed it.
Whether it's worth bending the science to fit this narrative is of course, questionable.
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#5How hard is it for people to just admit that we probably have inadequate evidence to reach a solid conclusion. This was the first object of its kind and we had very limited observations of it. From what I've read, none of the hypotheses regarding the measured acceleration (e.g. outgassing vs manufactured solar sail) can really be backed up in any substantial way. So it seems disengenuous to get into vitriolic arguments about it.
We just have to keep watching, more thoroughly and with better equipment.
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#6"That Harvard Astronomer" is Avi Loeb. Loeb was recently a guest on the Lex Fridman podcast where he talked about Oumuamua amongst other things. [0] I found his view on the subject fascinating and his perspective on science refreshing. [0] https://lexfridman.com/avi-loeb/
He was interviewed for the Kotke Ride Home podcast. He has a book coming out about Oumuamua. I will probably buy the book because Loeb is apparently brilliant. His evaluation of Oumuamua is very interesting. BUT the data about Oumuamua is really really tiny. The science of interstellar objects is nascent. Other than to say "If it is a natural object it is super-strange" I am not sure what else there is to say. In the…
My concern is that we aren't going to get much more than what was said in the articles already.
I think the beneficial outcome of all of this is that we can identify what to look for next time, and hopefully get funding to do that.
I also wonder if, as our tracking tech gets better, it would be relatively cheap to land a bunch of sensors on these and have them go on a ride somewhere in space for much cheaper than launching our own and trying to accelerate it to that velocity, even considering the costs of interception.
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#7I'd gotten the impression that Loeb isn't trying to convince the public and scientific community that it was an alien probe so much as is he trying to show it could have been. I think is agenda is to get the community looking for these things more often, perhaps out of some disappointment that if it had been an actual probe (a la "Rendezvous with Rama"), we'd already have missed it. Whether it's worth bending the sci…
His battle is only partly about Oumuamua. That is just a vehicle for his arguments. The real issue is the bias against life detection experiments generally. Want to sample soil on mars and measure oxygen absorption? Great. We will put your sensor on the next rover. Want to pour nutrients on that soil and see if anything eats it? Go away you crazy person. Want to detect methane in an exoplanet atmosphere? Here is your telescope time. Want to detect CFCs, a likely technosignature? Good luck getting them to return your emails. That bias against definitive binary life detection efforts, solid yes/no answers, underpins Loeb's points on Oumuamua. If we are serious about life detection we should be looking for indisputable artifacts of both primitive and complex life, the later of which includes technological life.
Loeb must also fight against widespread public assumptions about the hunt for life, specifically that people think SETI is a giant organization always scanning the sky. The public thinks the scientific community is actually putting in a solid effort to look for aliens. They aren't. We as a society spend more on candycrush than the entire SETI project. Want a definitive answer on whether the next Oumuamua is a light sail? Cough up the money so the scientists can buy the telescope time.
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#8Here's a recent interview of Avi Loeb on this subject https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DQYiyQ7Tkk
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#9Oumuamua raises some questions, but the one my mind keeps wandering to is “how common are these interstellar objects?”
It poses a serious existential threat to us. We are a tiny target, but we have been able to observe these objects for a very short period of time. Unlike regular solar satellites, they are only visible for a very short period of time. Like comets, if one hit us it would end life on the planet. They don’t need to be massive with how fast they are. We can estimate how many comets are out there with orbital mechanics models, but what about objects originating from outside the solar system? We could one day not wake up because we couldn’t even see one of these coming before it hit us.
Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer
#10The title implies research on Oumuamua was censored, which was never the case.