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A meteor or alien tech: Harvard professor plans UFO expedition

nbcboston.com

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Re: A meteor or alien tech: Harvard professor plans UFO expedition

#44

Post by yuan43 »

Reconstructing what the article appears to be saying:

1. a catalog of government sensor data on meteorite strikes was discovered

2. based on the data, those strikes that could have originate outside of the solar system were gathered

3. one hit in particular appears to be harder than iron based on its speed and loss

Then:

> Despite the government releasing limited data due to national security concerns - he had discovered something groundbreaking. A paper he wrote with his student laid out what he believed to be true. But three years after writing his findings, a major development confirmed what he knew all along.

Great, let's find that paper and see what's up. Wait, where's the link? No matter, just tell me the journal and I'll find it. Nope. Ah, that's right, this is the popular media where such things simply aren't done.

Re: A meteor or alien tech: Harvard professor plans UFO expedition

#45

Post by gloriousduke »

supernova87a wrote: post #21

I will just say that in the astronomy faculty community, although Avi Loeb is the head of the Harvard astro department, his "research" has garnered him questionable and often head-shaking disapproval and a decrease in respect from colleagues. Some, bordering on many, think that he's just out to grab headlines and has become a bad joke at this point (past examples: solar system interlopers as "UFOs", etc). Maybe Avi s…

> maybe that he goes to tv news channels preferentially over arxiv publishing

https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.15213

Re: A meteor or alien tech: Harvard professor plans UFO expedition

#46

Post by MichaelCollins »

titzer wrote: post #35
MichaelCollins wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see anything in the original research that suggests it is "tech". I think the article completely made this up. It's because it's coming from Avi Loeb, the guy who suggested Oumuamua might be a Rama-style spacecraft. I don't think he's dead set on alien hypotheses, but he wants them to at least be taken seriously as possibilities.

Ah, I didn't know it was the same guy. It's not clear, at least to me, how extreme his original claims even were, considering how fast things get distorted with sensationalist media these days. He does seem to be a quite serious scientist and not a crank.

He has an interview with Lex Fridman here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plcc6E-E1uU

I haven't listened to the whole thing, but he seems to think that aliens visiting our solar system is likely enough that it makes sense to look for. He falls short of the confident certainty I usually expect from cranks though, he's talking about investigating possibilities. I think he's eccentric, but I wouldn't call him a crank.

Re: A meteor or alien tech: Harvard professor plans UFO expedition

#47

Post by AlbertCory »

barbarr wrote: post #22

Can the title be revised to something like "Harvard Professor on Quest for Possible Alien Tech that Crashed in the Pacific Ocean"? Current phrasing makes it seem like the professor crashed into the ocean.

The actual article's title was "Harvard Professor Believes Alien Tech Could Have Crashed Into Pacific Ocean" which is more clear.

Although to make it less woo-woo flying saucer-ish, I might have said:

"Harvard Professor Believes Meteor That Crashed Into Ocean Was Alien Metal"

Re: A meteor or alien tech: Harvard professor plans UFO expedition

#49

Post by dylan604 »

barbarr wrote: post #22

Can the title be revised to something like "Harvard Professor on Quest for Possible Alien Tech that Crashed in the Pacific Ocean"? Current phrasing makes it seem like the professor crashed into the ocean.

That's how I understood the title.
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