Peculiar interstellar space visitor was 'probably an alien vessel'

The lingering question of whether humans are alone in the universe is a topic of hot debate, with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb reaffirming his belief that extraterrestrials have recently passed through our solar system in vessel shaped like a “comet”.

A mysterious cigar-shaped object that zipped through the Milky Way at lighting pace in 2017 was largely deemed by scientific bodies, including the European Space Agency, to be a comet, ejected from another star system.

But in a book entitled “The First Sign of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life”, Loeb – the director of Harvard's astronomy department – says this explanation is unlikely given the object had no tail and was travelling four times faster than most asteroids.

The first object to arrive from beyond our solar system was spotted by astronomers in Hawaii, who nicknamed it Oumuamua, the Maori word for scout, or voyager. 

Unusual behaviour

Some 400 metres long and 40 metres wide, Oumuamua approached our planetary system, abnormally changing direction as it neared the Sun, before leaving again. 

Loeb maintains the elongated rock was most certainly a probe or vessel from an alien civilisation. This was a theory he first wrote about in a controversial article three years ago. His ideas have now been fleshed out in this book.

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"If I'm right, this is the greatest discovery in the history of mankind," Loeb says. 

"There are thousands of billions of galaxies like our Milky Way in the visible universe. There are more planets and solar systems like ours in the universe than there are snowflakes on our Earth. 

“That must teach us a little bit of modesty. We are probably commonplace, and not the smartest people in the neighbourhood.”