ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE?

What if humanity has already experienced first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence— and didn’t even notice?

Our Earth is unique in the universe—at least that’s what most humans have believed for a long time. But we have known since October 28, 2020, that this notion is not entirely accurate. On that day a sizable team of NASA scientists and collaborators from around the world published an assessment of how many potentially habitable or “Earth-like” planets there are in our galaxy. The result: At least 300 million stars the size of our Sun could be orbited by a rocky planet that’s capable of supporting liquid water on its surface—significantly more than we had dared to imagine. But what does this mean with regard to the question of whether life on Earth is the only life in the universe?

The answer to that question seems obvious to some people. After all, we have never found any clear indication of extraterrestrial life. However, past experience isn’t definitive proof. Just because we’ve never seen something does not mean that it doesn’t exist. And the very fact that Earth supports life is evidence that life can emerge when the conditions are right. Most serious researchers today agree that there is extraterrestrial life out there somewhere. But are there any who believe that we’ve already had initial contact with aliens? Yes—just one. But much to the dismay of skeptics, he’s a real heavyweight…

Professor Avi Loeb got his PHD in plasma physics at age 24 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then went on to serve as a long-term member at the Institute for Advanced

Study in Princeton, where he worked in theoretical astrophysics. In 1993 he came to Harvard University and became the director of the Harvard Institute for Theory and Computation. That’s not the profile of a wacko, and that’s why the world of astrophysics was shocked when he and coauthor Shmuel Bialy published a paper in 2018 asserting that humanity likely had initial contact with an artifact of extraterrestrial intelligence one year prior—and missed it. The story begins on October 19, 2017, in Hawaii when astronomer Robert Weryk discovered the asteroid 1I/'oumuamua. At first it seemed like a routine sighting. But after a short time it became clear that Oumuamua is not a normal asteroid; rather, it’s an intruder from a distant star system, an interstellar interloper that meanders through the universe without being tethered to any star.

“Thinking about distant civilizations is not speculative.” AVI LOEB

Loeb has asserted that Oumuamua is the artifact of an extraterrestrial civilization from the very beginning, and he has laid out his thoughts in a book. But where did he get this idea?

“Most researchers will agree that Oumuamua is extremely strange,” says Loeb. “Still, they hesitate to say it might be an artificial object. I’m not arguing that we know for certain it’s artificial. I’m saying it’s a reasonable plausibility based on the evidence.” Oumuamua is the first and so far only visitor from another solar system, and it teems with anomalies. For starters, its surface is 10 times more reflective than that of ordinary asteroids. It also seems to “blink,” its brightness level changing regularly as it rotates every eight hours. Its reflective properties suggest it is shaped like a cigar. And despite moving like a comet it doesn’t have a tail, which defies explanation: Usually smaller celestial bodies will outgas when they approach the Sun because they carry frozen material, but Oumuamua doesn’t do this.

Another noticeable feature is its course: All of a sudden Oumuamua’s trajectory changed, practically within sight of the Earth, and a conclusive explanation has not been found. An asteroid that steers? When Loeb heard that, he started wondering if there might be another force acting on Oumuamua. But it gets even more perplexing: When scientists tried to reconcile the contradicting course data, it became evident Oumuamua moves according to the speed of the “local standard of rest” (LSR). This is the statistical average value (speed and course) with which stars in the Milky Way rotate around the center. That an asteroid (which doesn’t keep to an orbit) would randomly proceed through the galaxy with exactly this value is possible, but highly unlikely. Why is that interesting? If you wanted to disguise the origin of an object in space, this is probably the best way.

Since Oumuamua had zoomed past the Earth at 54 miles per second, and there’s no possible way to catch up with it, the object remains a puzzling phenomenon. Maybe that’s precisely why we should listen very carefully to Avi Loeb, or at least refrain from trying to explain inconsistencies by citing unproven measurement errors.

The most significant question is, if Oumuamua is artificial—the product of an extraterrestrial civilization— what is its purpose? Loeb has two answers: The object could be a kind of solar sail with a probe, or another possible function would be that of a “buoy.” Therefore it is conceivable that in truth it was not Oumuamua that moved, but rather us. In fact, it could have been anchored in space for eons (for example, as part of a galactic surveillance system), and our solar system has now passed it while rotating around the center of the Milky Way. So, have we been spied upon?

“There’s at least the possibility,” says Loeb. “And for that very reason, the most egregious mistake we humans can make now would be to not take the possibility seriously.”