I feel it is important to publicise refutations of extraordinary claims widely.
The media generally loves to publish the extraordinary claims. especially ALIENS!! but is silent when the results comeback as "Sorry, they were wrong."
this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023
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The "Harvard astronomer" in question is Avi Loeb, who's a complete nutjob.
I was wondering if they bribed their way in.
This is a case of everyone having one of “those uncles.”
That said, I’m much more offended at John Yoo, author of the torture memos saying George Bush has the right to do anything because he’s the president, being hired as a law professor at Berkeley.
I read his book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” about Oumuamua. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua it was well thought out and examines the object from many angles. He never says it was aliens. He only says that everything we know about it says it isn’t natural and could be aliens. He does say that it passed through so quickly that we really didn’t get a great look at the object and have to make some guesses about it based on observations.
From your link:
By July 2019, most astronomers concluded that it was a natural object, but its exact characterization is contentious given the limited observation window. While an unconsolidated object (rubble pile) would require ʻOumuamua to be of a density similar to rocky asteroids
On 22 March 2023, astronomers proposed the observed acceleration was "due to the release of entrapped molecular hydrogen that formed through energetic processing of an H2O-rich icy body",[33] consistent with 'Oumuamua being an interstellar comet, "originating as a planetesimal relic broadly similar to solar system comets"
Avi Loeb has suggested that it could be a product of extraterrestrial technology,[35] but there is insufficient evidence to support any hypotheses, "despite all [its] strangeness".
While basically every Astrophysicist agrees it is from outside our solar system. He is basically the only Astrophysicist who believes it is an artefact of alien intelligence and design.
While I have not read his book it sounds like a case of confirmation basis on his part.
Somehow I knew it would be him from the headline. He has been making himself look a fool for years now.
Damn. In the food we eat, the water that sustains us and all else, and the air in our lungs.
@Pons_Aelius Thank you for posting this great discussion of the science related to Loeb’s extraordinary claims. It always bothered me that he was so certain that the spherules his team found MUST have come from the meteor. To me, it seems improbable that they could so easily find fragments in a large search area within a couple of weeks. The isotope analysis counteracting the claim of interstellar origin is fascinating!
I found it really strange as well. The whole story had me thinking conformation bias from the beginning.
It always bothered me that he was so certain that the spherules his team found MUST have come from the meteor.
Exactly. Especially considering there are at least 5 papers dating back to the 1950s describing magnetic spherules found on the seafloor and being from anthropogenic sources.
"Alien spherules" sounds like a 196 post title