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Discovery of spherules of likely extrasolar composition in the Pacific Ocean [pdf]

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Re: Discovery of spherules of likely extrasolar composition in the Pacific Ocean [pdf]

#12
Is the U-235/U-238 ratio different from Earth's? Surely they have that data from the mass spec? Naively I'd think that's the most direct, incontrovertible way of distinguishing an extrasolar meteorite from some geochemistry process that enriches and depletes different elements.

Re: Discovery of spherules of likely extrasolar composition in the Pacific Ocean [pdf]

#15
post #9

"found about 700 spherules of diameter 0.05-1.3 millimeters" ... "0.26 km2 of seafloor was sampled" ... "seafloor depths ranging between 1.5-2.2 km" I'm imagining fine, dusty sand, falling from the atmosphere, sprinkling onto the surface of the ocean, then slowly drifting down 2 kilometers... and it ended up landing on the ocean floor REMOTELY near the path of the meteor? Wow, I feel like wind and ocean currents woul…

I think these are called micro meteorites an can be found on flat roofs. I also have kids and was woken up by a truck doing something loud outside my apartment between the hours of 05:45 and 06:15.

Re: Discovery of spherules of likely extrasolar composition in the Pacific Ocean [pdf]

#16
The first author is Avi Loeb, who thinks this:

> In 2018, he suggested that alien space craft may be in the Solar System, using ʻOumuamua as an example. In 2023, he claimed to have recovered material from an interstellar meteor that could be evidence of an alien starship, claims some experts criticized as hasty and sensational.

> On August 24, 2023, The New York Times published an article about Loeb and his search for signs of extraterrestrial life, and how he became the "world's leading alien hunter".

So take the claims with a spherule of salt

Re: Discovery of spherules of likely extrasolar composition in the Pacific Ocean [pdf]

#17

The first author is Avi Loeb, who thinks this: > In 2018, he suggested that alien space craft may be in the Solar System, using ʻOumuamua as an example. In 2023, he claimed to have recovered material from an interstellar meteor that could be evidence of an alien starship, claims some experts criticized as hasty and sensational. > On August 24, 2023, The New York Times published an article about Loeb and his search fo…

Thanks for pointing that out! What are your thoughts on the latest UFO congressional hearing? Do you think these people just turned their careers and image to shambles because they just wanted some sensationalism or do you give people any benefit of the doubt?

Re: Discovery of spherules of likely extrasolar composition in the Pacific Ocean [pdf]

#18
post #5

[flagged]

That is covered in the paper. Was there a flaw in their control process?

  "if I can't explain it any other way then it must be aliens"
feels very like

  "If I can't explain genetics any other way then it must be god and therefore evolution does not exist: its god"
how about:

  "If I can't explain it because I am not competent then you are a fool for believing my reasoning why this is x and not y or z or a or b"
He found a thing. It's unusual in composition and physical form. Therefore, we can be confident it exists. We cannot be confident WHY it exists because its a new thing. We may find:

a) its more common than we think b) its been hiding in plain site ignored in other samples c) its extra-solar qualities may be revised in the light of a and b

We had no soft bodied holotypes about precambrian creatures for a long time. We think the precambrian explosion is amazing. Oddly, we don't think its aliens. We just realize now that a lot of very odd organisms washed out. Now, soft bodied fossils are accepted as "normal"

He's a fool, if he truly thinks this is evidence of aliens.

what if (for instance) it's cometary in origin, from the Oort cloud and guess what: we don't have direct samples to hand about the physical structure of objects the size of a grain of sand, in the Oort cloud. This could just be what exists in deep space, and only gets here if a comet does.

Re: Discovery of spherules of likely extrasolar composition in the Pacific Ocean [pdf]

#20

The first author is Avi Loeb, who thinks this: > In 2018, he suggested that alien space craft may be in the Solar System, using ʻOumuamua as an example. In 2023, he claimed to have recovered material from an interstellar meteor that could be evidence of an alien starship, claims some experts criticized as hasty and sensational. > On August 24, 2023, The New York Times published an article about Loeb and his search fo…

The Chief Scientist of US Space Operations Command "confirmed that the velocity estimate reported to NASA is sufficiently accurate to indicate an interstellar trajectory" [1] using "additional data available to the Department of Defense" which I assume is classified.

As far as I can tell this paper isn't making any extraordinary claims about extraterrestrial intelligence [2] (which Loeb is infamous for), it's just confirming that the chemical composition - the ratio of beryllium, lanthanum, and uranium specifically - doesn't match any known minerals or alloys in our solar system.

There are thousands of known minerals so it's not out of the question that they're wrong.

[1] https://twitter.com/US_SpaceCom/status/1511856370756177921

[2] The second to last sentence notwithstanding: "Another possibility is that this unfamiliar abundance pattern may reflect an extraterrestrial technological origin."

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