Delmarva Today: 2-12-21
Elizabeth Kolbert published an article in the January 25, 2021 issue of The New Yorker asking if signs of extraterrestrial life have been found. She cites a dot of light sighted by Robert Weryk, and then other astronomers, traveling at an unusually great speed, its brightness varying significantly in intensity. Instead of swinging around the sun in an elliptical path, it was passing through in a somewhat straight line. Kolbert says astronomers agreed it was something never seen before. It was called Oumuamua, (pronounced oh-mooah-mooah), Hawaiian basically meaning “scout.’
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb along with Shmuel Bialy argued in an equation-dense paper that an interstellar object behaving as Oumuamua was the work of an alien civilization. Other astrophysicists demurred in no uncertain terms by saying the claims in the paper are an insult to honest scientific inquiry. Loeb responded by writing “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and likened the negative reception of his claim to that of Galileo when he claimed the earth orbited the sun. Kolbert outlines the argument that follows Loeb’s claim.
My guest to help us understand the significance of Oumuamua and the controversy over Loeb’s proclamation as well as what the controversy has to say about our current culture and the ideas of evidence and "truth,” is astronomer Grant Wilson, professor and graduate program director in the astronomy department at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.