Alien life may be hidden on the moon which it acts like a ‘fishing net’ to trap interstellar objects, Harvard scientist says
- A Harvard scientists says our own moon may harbor clues of alien life
- Impacts of interstellar object may have embedded clues from deep space
- The moon’s surface would likely hold those clues for billions of years he says
Proof of extraterrestrial life may be a lot closer to home than most imagine according to one Harvard scientist.
In an op-ed published in Scientific American, theoretical physicists and Harvard professor, Abraham Loeb, says that our own moon may be a ‘fishing net’ for alien life.
‘The idea is to consider the moon’s surface as a fishing net for interstellar objects collected over time and potentially deliver building blocks of life from the habitable environments around other stars,’ writes Loeb in Scientific American.
Because the moon is geologically inactive, Loeb says the surface would likely retain any intriguing interstellar clues brought via asteroid or some other astrophysical source instead of burying evidence deep under the lunar surface.
Abrahm Loeb, a Harvard professor and astrophysicist (pictured above) says that evidence of alien life may be hiding out on the surface of the moon
The moon’s geological and atmospheric conditions make the existence of interstellar, and possibly alien, material a possibility, Loeb says
Objects collected by the moon’s surface would likely extend back billions of years making the moon a kind of ‘mailbox,’ as he puts it, for objects flying around our solar system.
Though most of those impacts would likely be the result of objects originated from within our solar system, recent evidence shows that interstellar travelers in our neck of the galaxy may be a lot more common than previously thought.
Just recently, astronomers identified the second known interstellar object to enter our solar system – a comet dubbed 2l/Borisov – that will be visible by telescopes for up to a year.
In 2017, researchers identified Oumuamua, the first – a mysterious cigar-shaped projectile, formally named object that resembled both a comet and an asteroid, though it didn’t conform to many of the other defining features usually associated with those objects.
Astronomers identified an asteroid-like rock known as Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object to pass through our solar system two years ago. An artist’s impression of Oumuamua is pictured
Those objects not only portend extraterrestrial pay-dirt on the moon, says Loeb, but studying them could also help to inform scientists exactly how much may be lurking on the surface.
‘With this calibration at hand, one can calculate the amount of interstellar material that has collected on the moon’s surface over its history,’ he writes.
Loeb says that based on current measurements of the flux – amount of energy – of interstellar objects, the lunar surface may contain as much as 30 parts per million of lunar surface material.
‘Amino acids, which serve as the building blocks of ‘life as we know it,’ could amount to a few parts per hundred billion,’ says Loeb.
This rendering (pictured above) shows a concept of what a base on the lunar surface may look like. From here, humans would be able to explore the lunar surface.
Micro-fossils of extinct alien life, similar to the 3.4 billion-year-old versions found on Earth are also a distinct possibility, he says.
Of course, even more exciting than bits of interstellar matter, would be the prospect of a more overt sign of life in other parts of the universe.
‘Even more exciting would be to find traces of technological equipment that crashed on the lunar surface a billion years ago, amounting to a letter from an alien civilization saying, “We exist.”’ write Loeb.
‘Without checking our mailbox, we would never know that such a message arrived.’
With the potential for a moon base being built by either the US or China, Loeb says those findings could be just around the corner.