Avi Loeb on Searching for Alien Technology in Space

Harvard physicist Avi Loeb, who heads the Galileo Project, talks with Shawn Ryan about black holes, extraterrestrials and the hunt for physical evidence of technology from beyond Earth. It isn't a gun story, but it's a long conversation that readers of this show tend to like.

Key points

• Background: the show's introduction says Loeb was born in Israel in 1962, earned a PhD in plasma physics at 24, and is founding director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative.
• An interstellar meteor: Loeb describes an object about half a meter across that hit the atmosphere four years before 'Oumuamua and exploded about 20 kilometers over the Pacific. He says U.S. Space Command confirmed it was moving too fast to be bound to the Sun.
• Where to look: he argues interstellar objects stay trapped in the Milky Way and collect "like plastics in the ocean," so they can be searched for close to home.
• The books: his 2021 book Extraterrestrial became an international bestseller translated into 26 languages, the introduction says, followed by Interstellar in 2023.

Quick take

Loeb's pitch is that this question can be tested with data rather than argued about. Whether you buy it or not, he lays out his reasoning at length.

Watch the full video: Shawn Ryan Show