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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. ;)
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…
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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 o…
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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.
Props for your correct spelling of colour.
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…
I think Avi Loeb is legitimately excited about this topic. He's also aware that the public is tremendously excited and inspired about the possibility of UFOs, alien flybys of the solar system, etc. I think he's achieved professional recognition, paid his dues playing the game of academia (very successfully), and is now pursuing things that he finds most exciting. The man has co-authored a thousand papers, literally,…
I don't think anyone in the field is triggered by some guy pursuing his interest in aliens and UFO.
What they get triggered about, is that guy using his relatively large platform to say that anyone not agreeing with him is part of the establishment or otherwise useless, or to say that there is no other possible explanation to a certain phenomenon than aliens, or to be insulting to another colleague during an online talk.
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…
> Today he would have been canceled on social media.
Avi Loeb has definitely not spent a whole lot of time on Social Media!
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.
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
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Meh, good luck to him, he is not hurting anyone and he seems to genuinely be a smart guy that believes what he says. Its ok to be eccentric.
He's not eccentric, but a self-promoting grifter