Mar 12, 2025 05:57 PM
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astroph...erstellar/
EXCERPTS: Harvard University physicist Avi Loeb has responded to those who have cast doubt over his claim that metallic spherules retrieved from the seafloor near Papua New Guinea are from a meteorite of interstellar origin. Loeb has even claimed that the fragments’ unusual chemical makeup could be evidence of an alien civilisation from another stellar system.
[...] experts are sceptical that Loeb’s team uncovered material from an interstellar object. They say it is more likely that its composition is the result of pollution from Earth-based materials.
While Loeb says his team’s analysis of the chemistry of the spherules rules this out, other physicists say that proof of interstellar origin would be in dating the material and finding that it is older than the Sun... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Harvard University physicist Avi Loeb has responded to those who have cast doubt over his claim that metallic spherules retrieved from the seafloor near Papua New Guinea are from a meteorite of interstellar origin. Loeb has even claimed that the fragments’ unusual chemical makeup could be evidence of an alien civilisation from another stellar system.
[...] experts are sceptical that Loeb’s team uncovered material from an interstellar object. They say it is more likely that its composition is the result of pollution from Earth-based materials.
While Loeb says his team’s analysis of the chemistry of the spherules rules this out, other physicists say that proof of interstellar origin would be in dating the material and finding that it is older than the Sun... (MORE - missing details)