We cannot travel to other star systems and may not be able to travel there for a hundred years. However, we can find and test interstellar material. We can determine that meteors that were traveling faster than solar system escape velocity came from outside the solar system. NASA has a record of about 300 such interstellar objects that have hit the Earth. If we can track the meteors precisely we can find where they hit and gather samples from other solar systems. This is what Avi Loeb of Harvard and his team have spent $1.5 million have done. The pieces of the interstellar meteor are much tougher than regular iron meteors and contain silicon and titanium. This alloy suggests the possibility that they were manufactured.
However, we do not have to stop at gathering bits of one meteor. The estimated detection rate for interstellar meteors similar to CNEOS is at least ∼ 0.1 every year , resulting in a local density estimate of i ∼ one million per cubic AU or 10^22 per cubic parsec. They estimate 7.59 × 10^34 IM1-like objects bound by the thin disk of the Milky Way. However, if objects with the properties of IM1 were targeted towards habitable zones containing planets, they estimate 7.59 × 10^18 such objects. IM2 had a similar inferred number density to IM1 and a velocity of 40 km s-1 relative to the Local Standard of Rest. They estimate 2.78 × 10^34 IM2-like objects, and our estimate would be decreased to 2.78 × 10^18 if such objects were targeted towards habitable zones.
If there are alien civilizations then there could be vast amounts of technological material that is thrown off as junk, just as we have billions of tons of garbage and pollution. A significant and perhaps majority fraction of interstellar material could be the junk or probes of alien civilizations.
We can search for many of the 300 known interstellar meteor impacts and dedicated telescope detection system can be created so all such objects can be tracked and found.
The First Possible Evidence of Technological Aliens
The Galileo Project expedition to the Pacific Ocean successfully retrieved pieces of the first recognized interstellar meteor, IM1, and brought them back to Harvard College Observatory. More than 50 spherules which lay on the deep ocean floor for nearly a decade. These sub-millimeter-sized spheres, which appear under a microscope as beautiful metallic marbles, were concentrated along the expected path of IM1 — about 85 kilometers off the coast of Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Their discovery opens a new frontier in astronomy, where what lay outside the solar system is studied through a microscope rather than a telescope.
As they scooped the magnets, the most abundant material attached to them was a black powder of volcanic ash. It was everywhere, including the control regions far from IM1’s site. Avi Loeb was initially frustrated by this background to the extent where he titled one of his 34 diary reports: “Where are the spherules of IM1?”.
After a week at sea they used a filter with a mesh size of a third of a millimeter to sift through the tiny volcanic particles and examine the remaining larger particles under a microscope. Shortly thereafter, the team’s geologist Jeff Wynn came running down the stairs to tell me that the team’s analyst Ryan Weed saw through the microscope a beautiful metallic marble of sub-millimeter size and sub-milligram mass.
The composition analysis implied 84% iron, 8% silicon, 4% magnesium and 2% titanium, plus trace elements. I knew immediately that we would find many more spherules.
A typical iron meteorite contains 10% nickel. These spherules contain no nickel.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
The real question is… if aliens are crashing so many ships on Earth, to the point that governments can collect several and study them, then the rate of crashes PER spacecraft are orders of magnitude higher than human airplanes.
In other words, should we be studying that TERRIBLE alien engineering?
Hi Brian
I do wonder if the Sagan Principle, that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” is getting abused by Avi’s more over-zealous critics. The amount of technological artefacts that a million active Civilizations in the Milky Way might make could easily out-number every natural Interstellar Object (ISO) if such Civs are building partial Dyson Collectors or exploring the Galaxy or sending out Cultural Record cairns.
Are astronomers averse to the idea of trillions of items of “Alien Space Junk” because it’ll clutter up their ‘pristine’ heavenly spheres?
The question, of course, isn’t whether it’s not of natural origin. It’s whether it’s not of HUMAN origin; Did they check the composition against standard alloys?
My first thoughts was debris from a ww2 battle..maybe ball bearings or pen tips. It also isnt far from the spacecraft cemetary….but where is the rest of the debris and why only over the estimated path?
The fact that they’re round doesn’t imply ball bearings, just that the metal was molten and falling through the air at some point.
Does this article say anything new that wasn’t already said in previous articles on this same subject?
As I’ve noted before, even if an alloy is technologically useful, this does not prove a technological origin. Until a natural process can be ruled out, this is not proof. At best, if we can say that we’ve never seen this alloy in natural sources in our solar system, then this is evidence that it could have come from somewhere outside of it. But it says nothing about a technological origin.
And even if we haven’t seen it before, there’s always a first time.
Totally agree
First question I would have is do we currently make any alloys that have that composition.
If not, then what do we get if we create an alloy with those elements. Does such an alloy
have any useful properties?
Exactly.
If it replicates an existing alloy we use, or used at some time that could plausibly have arrived there by non-extraterrestrial means, that’s the simplest explanation.
If it’s not an alloy we already use, but turns out to have terrible properties? One presumes extraterrestrials would not bother with bad alloys, so either natural origin, or came from us and was altered by the process of melting it.
If it’s not an alloy we use, and turns out to be pretty nifty? Hey, extraterrestrial origin looks like a good theory.
An alloy that isnt useful for what though?
Problem is what is nifty for aliens?
Maybe the perfect alloy for their life support which is totally different from ours so we would never think to use it.
This is ridicules. At best this is the first evidence that is allowed to make its way to institutional science by those who are controlling our mindset. They have decided to start the disclosure process for their own reasons. They have been benefitting by keeping our awareness as tiny as possible, but in our age it is becoming increasingly difficult to hide our true essence. The universe is teeming with life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrUMBf488bY