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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

#81

Post by elcritch »

nine_k wrote: post #58
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…

I can imagine their disappointment if all they recover would be a few tons of platinum, iridium and such. /s

And here I didn't even consider the chance that it was an elaborate ruse to grab a punch of rare-earth metals. Apparently my heavy diet of sci-fi and techno thrillers hasn't trained me well enough yet. ;)

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

#82

Post by TooKool4This »

eloff wrote: post #79
headelf wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This seems a reasonable question to me, not having read the article. IIRC from grade school days, only a few metallic elements are magnetic. Iron, nickel, cobalt, and some rare earth metals. That was a long time ago and doubtless oversimplified, but please do enlighten me why it would be expected to be magnetic? It seems like they must still be assuming it's largely made of Iron.

Nope you are right. Ferromagnetism is very rare in nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferromagnetism#Ferromagnetic_m...

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

#83

Post by _jal »

nadavision wrote: post #75

Unrelated to the contents on the article but the wording of the title made me think that the Harvard Professor crashed into the Pacific Ocean. You might want to consider clearing it up.

To be fair, if a Harvard professor impacted the ocean that hard and on that trajectory, that would also be news.

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

#84

Post by giantg2 »

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…

Isn't it sort of funny that they think the asteroid might be some new material, or at least something tougher than iron, yet they are planning to use a magnet to pull up pieces? What happens if it's non-ferrous...

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

#85

Post by mr_gibbins »

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…

Good for him. What a way to lead a life, searching for alien tech at the bottom of the Pacific. I'd swap the grind for that any day. Let the other professors shake their heads and stir their Earl Grey in the cramped faculty staffroom, I know who I'd rather be.

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

#87

Post by LoveMortuus »

eloff wrote: post #79
headelf wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This seems a reasonable question to me, not having read the article. IIRC from grade school days, only a few metallic elements are magnetic. Iron, nickel, cobalt, and some rare earth metals. That was a long time ago and doubtless oversimplified, but please do enlighten me why it would be expected to be magnetic? It seems like they must still be assuming it's largely made of Iron.

Ferromagnetic matter is magnetic by nature. If you look at the periodic table you'll see that most of the elements are actually metals. Below Carbon there's a line which parts metals from semi metals and non metals.

But with proper equipment you can detect non magnetic conductive materials. Not sure what's it called, but if you pass a magnet near eg. copper the magnetic force from the magnet will induce electricity on copper which in turn with also produce a slight magnetic field. There are many good YouTube videos on this topic and they're quite cool! (https://youtu.be/u7Rg0TcHQ4Y)

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

#88

Post by micromacrofoot »

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 guess it’s easy and rules some things out

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

#89

Post by texasbigdata »

giantg2 wrote: post #84
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…

Isn't it sort of funny that they think the asteroid might be some new material, or at least something tougher than iron, yet they are planning to use a magnet to pull up pieces? What happens if it's non-ferrous...

Using a magnet seems like not a top 5 idea someone would have.

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

#90

Post by texasbigdata »

tacker2000 wrote: post #71
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.

I also thought that the professor crashed into the pacific because he was on a quest for alien tech.

+1. That prof must have been going super fast!!!!
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