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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

#61

Post by mensetmanusman »

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…

Head shaking can result in, or, be a symptom of group-think. It’s important for scientists to realize the importance of public relations due to funding.

If the public is interested in the origin of life, contemplating aliens or distant stars seem about as interesting, especially in regards to the Fermi paradox.

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

#62

Post by headelf »

015a wrote: post #11

To not bury the lead: His team studied data the government made available from military missile tracking systems, which conveniently also false-positives on asteroids. There was one in 2014 which slammed into the Pacific Ocean at a speed at least twice that of the speed stars around us move relative to the sun, which makes it likely to be extra-solar. Based on that speed & how much burned upon entry, they concluded i…

If it's tougher than iron, why are they planning to use a magnet to retrieve it?

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

#63

Post by linkdink »

yuan43 wrote: post #44

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 discov…

To be fair, if you're not going to Google it, you're probably more of a popular media reader anyway. There are no pictures in the paper to look at.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.07224

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

#64

Post by gfodor »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #13

I think I've seen this movie before; just don't let anybody touch the strange Sphere thing and you should be alright. Seriously though, this doesn't make much sense to me. Finding shipwrecks even when you know they exist and what general area they should be in is hard enough. This sort of search is a huge money sink, the ships, towed sonars, etc all cost a ton of money to operate.

$1.5M ain’t much depending on your priors and how much you value the discovery of extraterrestrial tech.

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

#65

Post by mensetmanusman »

wrnr wrote: post #40
jackmott42 wrote: post #8

This is Avi's second questionable alien obsession/quest. Not sure if it is something mental, grift, or perfectly rational impulse to check out incredibly unlikely but incredibly amazing possibilities.

He is a kwak, instead of actual science he shills these ideas on podcasts because the general public is interested in it or something like that. Whenever I meet someone from Harvard I think of this guy and automatically think less of them. Maybe that is wrong of me but then the Harvard alumni ought to have called him out on his BS.

Do we want no one contemplating the n>1 theory of life in the universe?

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

#66

Post by worldvoyageur »

yuan43 wrote: post #44

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 discov…

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019arXiv190407224S/abstra...

The payload:

" Based on the CNEOS catalog of bolide events, we identify the ∼0.45m meteor detected at 2014-01-08 17:05:34 UTC as originating from an unbound hyperbolic orbit with 99.999\% confidence. The U.S. Department of Defense has since verified that "the velocity estimate reported to NASA is sufficiently accurate to indicate an interstellar trajectory... Its high LSR speed implies a possible origin from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy." "

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

#67

Post by ericlewis »

headelf wrote: post #62
015a wrote: post #11

To not bury the lead: His team studied data the government made available from military missile tracking systems, which conveniently also false-positives on asteroids. There was one in 2014 which slammed into the Pacific Ocean at a speed at least twice that of the speed stars around us move relative to the sun, which makes it likely to be extra-solar. Based on that speed & how much burned upon entry, they concluded i…

If it's tougher than iron, why are they planning to use a magnet to retrieve it?

I suppose because they didn't say it was less magnetic than iron?

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

#68

Post by samstave »

015a wrote: post #36
adamzochowski wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world says "leading news story" and therefore "burying the lead". Lede is an american thing. Parent could have been a british or canadian neighbour with their british colourful spelling.

I promise, I'm not, I'm just dumb.

I too choose this guys dumbly leaded comment

(Lead makes you dumb)

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

#69

Post by upupandup »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #13

I think I've seen this movie before; just don't let anybody touch the strange Sphere thing and you should be alright. Seriously though, this doesn't make much sense to me. Finding shipwrecks even when you know they exist and what general area they should be in is hard enough. This sort of search is a huge money sink, the ships, towed sonars, etc all cost a ton of money to operate.

ha! I was gonna mention that movie here but I don't know what to make of this. This professor seems legitimately convinced its possible but who will believe him?

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

#70

Post by selimthegrim »

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…

He was giving a Zoom talk this week at a local po’boy shop in New Orleans and free copies of his book were being distributed. There didn’t seem to be much push back from starstruck fans.
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