We’re pleased and honored to present a special guest for this
episode, Dr. Abraham “Avi” Loeb. Dr. Loeb is the Frank B. Baird,
Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and received his
Ph.D. in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in
Israel at the age of 24. He has written nine books and nearly
1000 papers, led the first international project supported by the
Strategic Defense Initiative, and served as a long-standing
member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, among
many other achievements. Although his work with the Breakthrough
Starshot project to send “light sails” speeding toward nearby
stars may have initially gained him the most notoriety in science
news, his study and theory of a recent anomalous visitor put him
on the radar of the general public. In October 2017, a Hawaiian
observatory detected the first interstellar object to pass
through our solar system, which was subsequently named Oumuamua,
meaning “scout” in the Hawaiian language. That fact alone may
have registered a blip of mild interest to most. Yet the first
artists’ conceptions of the object as a cigar-shaped asteroid put
further curiosity of the masses to rest as it being, albeit odd,
just another space rock. However, analysis of sensor data of
Oumuamua, with no visual inspection obtained during its visit,
led Dr. Loeb and his team to conclude that it was nothing like it
was portrayed to the public. Instead, their research showed it
was roughly the size of a football field, reflective, spinning,
thin as a sheet of paper, and moving unusually. Dr. Loeb
hypothesized that Oumuamua could likely be a probe, perhaps
manufactured by an ancient alien civilization to gather
information as star systems pass by. Not surprisingly, many of
his peers met this open-minded thinking with dismissive
resistance, hesitant or unwilling to entertain such bold and
adventurous speculation. Join us for a fascinating discussion
with one of the world’s leading astrophysicists on the challenges
of searching for extraterrestrial life on the eve of his
appearance at the upcoming annual Contact in the Desert
conference taking place June 2 through 4, 2023, in Indian Wells,
California.
Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.
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