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Extraterrestrial

New study casts Avi Loeb's 'alien spherules' claim into further doubt

By T.K. Randall
March 13, 2025 · Comment icon 18 comments

Did these objects even come from a meteorite at all ? Image Credit: Avi Loeb
The Harvard astronomer maintains that these objects are part of a potentially artificially-made interstellar meteorite.
Back in June of 2023, Loeb - who had been on an expedition to search for pieces of a potentially artificially constructed interstellar object that fell somewhere in the Pacific Ocean - published a blog article describing the discovery of mysterious metal spherules with a composition he claimed to be "anomalous" when compared to human-made alloys.

"We found ten spherules," he said. "These are almost perfect spheres, or metallic marbles. When you look at them through a microscope, they look very distinct from the background."

"It has material strength that is tougher than all space rock that were seen before."

Since then, however, scientists have cast a great deal of doubt on whether the spherules are actually what Loeb is claiming they are, with University of Chicago physicist Patricio A Gallardo, for example, dismissing them as "coal fly ash", which he describes as being "a waste product of the combustion of coal in power plants and steam engines."

While Loeb later attempted to argue that his own analysis had ruled out this explanation, something else has now come up to cast doubt on the origin of the objects.

The entire basis for his expedition and recovery operation was the belief that an interstellar meteorite - known as CNEOS 20140108 - had burned up over the South Pacific Ocean in January, 2014.
To determine exactly where the object might have come down, Loeb and his team used seismic data from a station on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea to narrow down the point of impact.

They then used this to guide their undersea search and recovery operations.

Now, however, an international team of researchers headed up by Johns Hopkins University in the US has determined that the seismic signals picked up by the station at the time were probably not from the falling meteorite but were instead most likely to have been a truck passing on a road nearby.

"The signal changed directions over time, exactly matching a road that runs past the seismometer," said planetary seismologist and research leader Benjamin Fernando.

"It's really difficult to take a signal and confirm it is not from something. But what we can do is show that there are lots of signals like this, and show they have all the characteristics we'd expect from a truck and none of the characteristics we'd expect from a meteor."

If this is true, then Loeb wasn't even looking in the right place when he found the spherules.

This makes it more unlikely than ever that he has found pieces of an alien-made interstellar object.

Source: Cosmos Magazine | Comments (18)




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Comment icon #9 Posted by HandsomeGorilla 1 month ago
Just goes to show how much grifting pays. Stephen Greer didn't stop being an ER physician for nothin'.
Comment icon #10 Posted by Hazzard 1 month ago
  Unfortunately, for Avi Loeb, actual scientists who understand how this type of science is done are on the case, and the result is clear. Loebs claims were baseless, and his position, on the basis of the scientific merits, is nothing but embarrassing. https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/truth-harvard-astronomer-alien-spherules/    
Comment icon #11 Posted by 1 month ago
I'm trying to remember who was feverishly defending this chump.?
Comment icon #12 Posted by Grey Area 1 month ago
I think it was MrAnderson, but he’s not been around for a while and I can’t link his profile either, so maybe banned or something?
Comment icon #13 Posted by Hazzard 1 month ago
That would not surprise me at all, as his behaviour was, shall we say, a bit erratic. 
Comment icon #14 Posted by Chaldon 1 month ago
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck everyone think it's a duck, and while in fact it may be a roboduck. Science is not about shaming someone, it's about truth and truth does not change because of anyone's allegations. Actually I find the most of Loeb's ideas exciting and invigorating (let's just ignore his fascination with modern AI tech), he may be a fool but he's certainly a cool guy who dares to defy complacency, and in this world of decrepit elitism it's a much needed trait.
Comment icon #15 Posted by Hazzard 1 month ago
I never had a problem with the guy quite the opposite... but this time he seemed to have dropped the ball. Maybe he is thinking of a career change, and jumping on the woo woo train? 
Comment icon #16 Posted by Chaldon 1 month ago
May be. He's certainly becoming more and more of a public/media person, which always ends bad for a scientist.
Comment icon #17 Posted by Dejarma 1 month ago
Yeah but it can end well financially.. That's the only reason they do it because there's enough idiots out there that they know will buy the merchandise- be it books, documentaries, pay to hear them talk etc.. IN_MY_OPOINION
Comment icon #18 Posted by Hazzard 1 month ago
...especially when throwing around unsubstanuated claims like this one!  Like someone said earlier - He should know better.


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