Professor Avi Loeb, former head of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard, has an unusual nickname: Harvard alien hunter. It’s because for years he and one of his astrophysics students devoted himself to studying the possibility that intelligent life exists beyond planet Earth. Its strongest evidence was discovered in the remains of an unidentified object that crashed into the Pacific Ocean and could belong to a “spacecraft.”

The duo of scientists last week found the remains of an object, known as IM1, off the coast of Papua New Guinea as part of a $1.5 million underwater search mission. There they found 50 small iron spheres, which they have described as “abnormal” and stronger than what a meteor like the one they observed could produce.

“This composition is anomalous when compared to man-made alloys, known asteroids and known astrophysical sources,” Professor Loeb told the Daily mail.

According to NASA, the IM1 artifact almost certainly came from space, making it the first known interstellar visitor to Earth. But it was only discovered by Professor Loeb and Harvard researcher Amir Siraj in a retrospective analysis.

In March 2022, scientists from the US Space Command and Secret Technology confirmed Professor Loeb and Siraj’s 2019 calculations of IM1’s interstellar trajectory, reporting in an official letter to NASA that they were 99.999% sure that the object of outside our solar system.

Some of the discoveries that the scientists believe support their theory are that IM1 withstood four times the pressure that would normally destroy an ordinary iron-metal meteorite, and that its chemical composition is almost entirely iron.

“It is really important to continue pushing the boundaries of destigmatizing the search for extraterrestrial life,” Amir Siraj told the press. Daily mail.

Before determining that the 50 iron spheres found were from IM1, the team of scientists tracked the crash of this unidentified object, using satellite data from the US Department of Defense and local seismometers set up to detect earthquakes and volcanic activity. to follow.

“The spheres were found mainly along the expected trajectory of the meteorite,” they explained.

“The fundamental question is whether the meteor was of natural or technological origin,” asked Professor Loeb. “We hope to answer this question through further analysis of isotopic composition and radioactive dating,” he added.

The objects could also be traced back to our own planet, “like our own interstellar probes, but launched a billion years ago,” they argued.