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Harvard astronomer says cigar asteroid ‘really could be alien probe’

Could it have been an alien probe? (Getty Images)
Could it have been an alien probe? (Getty Images)

The head of Harvard’s astronomy department says that the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua’ could really be an alien probe – possibly one that is no longer working.

Avi Loeb, head of Harvard’s Astronomy department, said that while radio scans of the object showed nothing, there were still signs it might have been created by intelligent aliens.

The object’s brightness changed by a factor of ten as it spun – hinting that it could be a cigar or pancake shape, which is extremely unusual for asteroids, Loeb said.

The space object, a visitor from another star system, was scanned by the alien-hunting SETI project.

The fact that there are no radio signals from the object could simply mean that it’s no longer operating, Loeb told Israel’s Haaretz news.

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Loeb said, ‘We have no way of knowing whether it’s active technology, or a spaceship that is no longer operative and is continuing to float in space.

In the interview, he said that there could be signs of extraterrestrial life everywhere, as soon as humans leave the solar system.

Loeb said, ‘As soon as we leave the Solar System, I believe we will see a great deal of traffic out there.

‘Possibly we’ll get a message that says, ‘Welcome to the interstellar club.’ Or we’ll discover multiple dead civilizations – that is, we’ll find their remains.’

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