Harvard scientist claims alien tech rests in Pacific ocean; calls for investigation

Just a week after the United States Space Command (USSC) confirmed the crash of an interstellar object into the Pacific Ocean, a Harvard scientist is now interested in investigating it. Named Avi Loeb, the physicist says that the object could help acquire "out-of-this-world technology" and must be examined.

In his opinion piece in The Debrief, Leob wrote that “Our discovery of an interstellar meteor heralds a new research frontier” and added that it would fulfil the dream of acquiring an out-of-this-world technology.

The first interstellar object on Earth

The alien object is a meteor named CNEOS 2014-01-08, which measured just 1.5 feet across and had crashed near Papua New Guinea's Manus Island in 2014. The meteor was first identified by Leob and his student Amir Siraj, who also revealed that the meteor had sprinkled its debris into the Pacific Ocean before crashing. This confirmation has made the aforementioned meteor the first visitor from deep space. This position was previously occupied by a massive rocky object called ‘Oumuamua’ which visited our solar system in 2019. 

Scooping the Pacific floor

Loeb suggests that the Pacific ocean's floor can be scooped using a magnet in order to collect the pieces of the meteor. Stating that this might be a good opportunity to acquire alien technology, Loeb wrote that his dream "is to press some buttons on a functional piece of equipment that was manufactured outside of Earth". He argued that collecting leftovers of a meteor from the ocean floor instead of spending billions on an asteroid sample-collection mission is far more feasible. 

One such mission is NASA's OSIRIS-REx, which was launched in 2016. The spacecraft was launched to an asteroid to collect dust samples from it and has been successful in doing so. Currently, on its way to the Earth, the spacecraft is expected to arrive in September 2023. Notably, Loeb has been in the headlines on multiple occasions for claiming that humans have been contacted by aliens.

Loeb had published a book in 2021 titled 'Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth', claiming that Oumuamua, the object that visited us in 2017, was a method of spacecraft propulsion sent by aliens, Daily Mail reported.