Submission + - Did the Galileo Project just find the remains of an interstellar craft? (hotair.com) 4
An anonymous reader writes: Given all of the other strange news making the rounds this month about space travel, UFOs, and unusual objects, this seems like a rather timely story. Regular readers may already be familiar with Harvard Physicist Avi Loeb. A few years ago, astronomers detected an object hurtling through the solar system which was dubbed Oumuamua. It was unusual because they determined that it had originated from outside our solar system, the first such confirmed interstellar traveler we'd seen. Dr. Loeb caused some waves in the scientific community when he said that his observations of Oumuamua suggested that it might not be a space rock, but instead, possibly a technological object of some kind, potentially from outside our solar system. We'll never know for sure since it continued on and headed back out into deep space.
That gave Loeb an idea. He went back with some of his graduate students and began scanning all of NASA's data regarding meteors that fall into the Earth's atmosphere. After a long search, he found one with a speed and apparent composition that also appeared to have been interstellar in origin. He named it IM1 (Interstellar Metor 1). Even more fascinating, the NASA data was precise enough to determine that the object probably wasn't your usual meteorite and was likely composed of something much denser and harder, potentially suggesting something technological. He was also able to plot right where it came down, just off the coast of Australia.
Rather than leaving that mystery on the shelf, Avi Loeb decided to investigate. He's the head of the Galileo Project and he raised private funds to mount an expedition to go see if any remnants of it could be recovered. (Disclosure: I sent him a few bucks myself because it sounded like a fascinating project.) This month, his ship arrived at the site and began searching for debris by dragging large magnetic sleds across the sea bed. (It's rather shallow there.) Well, yesterday they found something. It's still too soon to say for sure, but it doesn't look or act like a space rock.
"... why would an interstellar object be made of steel unless it was manufactured technologically? The technological origin would be consistent with the flat shape of the recovered shards in Runs 6 and 7 on June 18–19, 2023. The speed of IM1 outside the solar system was higher than any human-made spacecraft so far."
That gave Loeb an idea. He went back with some of his graduate students and began scanning all of NASA's data regarding meteors that fall into the Earth's atmosphere. After a long search, he found one with a speed and apparent composition that also appeared to have been interstellar in origin. He named it IM1 (Interstellar Metor 1). Even more fascinating, the NASA data was precise enough to determine that the object probably wasn't your usual meteorite and was likely composed of something much denser and harder, potentially suggesting something technological. He was also able to plot right where it came down, just off the coast of Australia.
Rather than leaving that mystery on the shelf, Avi Loeb decided to investigate. He's the head of the Galileo Project and he raised private funds to mount an expedition to go see if any remnants of it could be recovered. (Disclosure: I sent him a few bucks myself because it sounded like a fascinating project.) This month, his ship arrived at the site and began searching for debris by dragging large magnetic sleds across the sea bed. (It's rather shallow there.) Well, yesterday they found something. It's still too soon to say for sure, but it doesn't look or act like a space rock.
"... why would an interstellar object be made of steel unless it was manufactured technologically? The technological origin would be consistent with the flat shape of the recovered shards in Runs 6 and 7 on June 18–19, 2023. The speed of IM1 outside the solar system was higher than any human-made spacecraft so far."
