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Interstellar Visitor Zipping Through Solar System Could Be Hostile Probe

10 points by ulrischa 1y ago

metalman 1y ago
ummmmm, anybody know what assets we have in mars and jupiters orbits that can be deployed to watch this thing make very close passes by those two planets?
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
perihelions 1y ago
The last billion over the past billion years could each, also, have been hostile alien probes. It's only now that we've the ability to observe them, in the past ~10 years, a cosmic blink, that we tangibly observe what's been going on all this time. (If we go and burn down the astronomy observatories, this will never happen again!) That Harvard guy's such an attention-seeking clown. (Worth remarking there's nothing fundamentally novel about observing comets from interstellar space; that's been predicted for centuries. Because it's ancient knowledge that certain comets are observed *departing* the solar system, into interstellar space; so why shouldn't we expect the same to happen in reverse, symmetrically? It's just a question of number statistics).
giardini 1y ago
Whoever added " Alien Technology" to the title should definitely be cut off from US funding.
Jtsummers 1y ago
> For Harvard astronomer and study co-author Abraham Loeb I can't see how anyone associated with Harvard isn't embarrassed to be connected to this guy. He's been making claims like this, without real evidence, for years now. The most generous take I can muster is that he's discovered evidence of stupidity amongst the wealthy on this world and that they'll throw money at him if he says, "I'm saying it's aliens." The least generous is that he's become an outright crank.
- alphazard 1y ago
  > The most generous take I can muster is that he's discovered evidence of stupidity amongst the wealthy on this world and that they'll throw money at him if he says, "I'm saying it's aliens." The least generous is that he's become an outright crank. One way to tell the difference is to offer him a bet.
  - kadoban 1y ago
    Cranks/scammers can not in general be trusted to honor bets, that tends to be a waste of time.
- exe34 1y ago
  I haven't dug into this exact claim, but I had a quick look an article that quoted the paper that he wrote about this - and his words were along the lines of "I don't believe this to be true, but if it were true, these would be the things we'd observe, these would be the consequences, etc." It's an academic exercise, he doesn't actually believe these things are what the media quotes him as saying.
  - cthalupa 1y ago
    He goes on podcasts quite frequently and talks about all of this stuff - he's one of the most frequent guests on Event Horizon where this is his bread and butter sort of conversation. If he doesn't believe this sort of thing, well, he certainly had me fooled after having spent hours listening to him talk about it all.
    - ithkuil 1y ago
      I've listened to Avi Loeb on Mindscald and he was quite clear that he's taking the possibility seriously as any scientist should take any possibility seriously. He did strike me as a crackpot, but just as somebody who thought that this field has been stigmatized and ridiculed for a long time and somebody has to have the courage to remove the stigma and take this field back in the hands of real science. I only listened to that one podcast and it was at the time of oumuanua I don't know if in the meantime he veered completely on the crackpot side.
calmbonsai 1y ago
Please don't get astronomy information from Gizmodo. They're about as qualified on science as they are on finance.

10 points by ulrischa 1y ago

ummmmm, anybody know what assets we have in mars and jupiters orbits that can be deployed to watch this thing make very close passes by those two planets?

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

perihelions 1y ago

The last billion over the past billion years could each, also, have been hostile alien probes. It's only now that we've the ability to observe them, in the past ~10 years, a cosmic blink, that we tangibly observe what's been going on all this time. (If we go and burn down the astronomy observatories, this will never happen again!) That Harvard guy's such an attention-seeking clown. (Worth remarking there's nothing fundamentally novel about observing comets from interstellar space; that's been predicted for centuries. Because it's ancient knowledge that certain comets are observed *departing* the solar system, into interstellar space; so why shouldn't we expect the same to happen in reverse, symmetrically? It's just a question of number statistics).

giardini 1y ago

Whoever added " Alien Technology" to the title should definitely be cut off from US funding.

Jtsummers 1y ago

> For Harvard astronomer and study co-author Abraham Loeb I can't see how anyone associated with Harvard isn't embarrassed to be connected to this guy. He's been making claims like this, without real evidence, for years now. The most generous take I can muster is that he's discovered evidence of stupidity amongst the wealthy on this world and that they'll throw money at him if he says, "I'm saying it's aliens." The least generous is that he's become an outright crank.

alphazard 1y ago
> The most generous take I can muster is that he's discovered evidence of stupidity amongst the wealthy on this world and that they'll throw money at him if he says, "I'm saying it's aliens." The least generous is that he's become an outright crank. One way to tell the difference is to offer him a bet.
- kadoban 1y ago
  Cranks/scammers can not in general be trusted to honor bets, that tends to be a waste of time.
exe34 1y ago
I haven't dug into this exact claim, but I had a quick look an article that quoted the paper that he wrote about this - and his words were along the lines of "I don't believe this to be true, but if it were true, these would be the things we'd observe, these would be the consequences, etc." It's an academic exercise, he doesn't actually believe these things are what the media quotes him as saying.
- cthalupa 1y ago
  He goes on podcasts quite frequently and talks about all of this stuff - he's one of the most frequent guests on Event Horizon where this is his bread and butter sort of conversation. If he doesn't believe this sort of thing, well, he certainly had me fooled after having spent hours listening to him talk about it all.
  - ithkuil 1y ago
    I've listened to Avi Loeb on Mindscald and he was quite clear that he's taking the possibility seriously as any scientist should take any possibility seriously. He did strike me as a crackpot, but just as somebody who thought that this field has been stigmatized and ridiculed for a long time and somebody has to have the courage to remove the stigma and take this field back in the hands of real science. I only listened to that one podcast and it was at the time of oumuanua I don't know if in the meantime he veered completely on the crackpot side.

calmbonsai 1y ago

Please don't get astronomy information from Gizmodo. They're about as qualified on science as they are on finance.