Galileo Project
Added March 25, 2024
‘Interstellar’ Meteor Signal May Have Been a Truck—So What Was Collected from the Ocean Floor?, Sciam, March 19, 2024
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/interstellar-meteor-signal-may-have-been-a-truck
"New analyses cast doubt on claims that a meteor witnessed over the South Pacific in 2014 came from another star system and raise questions about a high-profile expedition to recover the fireball’s fragments from the seafloor"
"After studying those seismometer data, however, Benjamin Fernando, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University, has concluded that Loeb’s analysis was flawed. The seismometer, Fernando says, recorded not a celestial object but something much more mundane and closer to home—a passing heavy truck—meaning that the location Loeb and his team searched would not have been in the path of the falling object. “We think that what they picked up from the seafloor is nothing to do with this meteor at all,” says Fernando, who posted the research on the preprint server arXiv.org and presented it at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Texas on Tuesday, March 12."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.03966
Seismic and acoustic signals from the 2014 'Interstellar Meteor'
Benjamin Fernando, Pierrick Mialle, G öram Ekstr öm, Constantinos Charalambous, Steven Desch, Alan Jackson, Eleanor K. Sansom
"We conduct a thorough analysis of seismic and acoustic data from the so-called `Interstellar Meteor' which entered the Earth's atmosphere off the coast of Papua New Guinea on 2014-01-08. We conclude that both previously-reported seismic signals are spurious -- one has characteristics suggesting a local vehicular-traffic based origin; whilst the other is statistically indistinguishable from the background noise."
My Comments
Truck vibrations or an interstellar meteorite? The Scientific American magazine didn't take sides on the issue. Occam's razor suggests the truck wins the day.
Wikipedia: Occam's razor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
"In philosophy, Occam's razor is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements. It is also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony."
Added March 19, 2024
Peak-Brightness Localization of the CNEOS 2014-01-08 (IM1) Fireball, Galileo Project, Avi Loeb, March 12, 2024
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo
Professor Avi Loeb replied to a preprint by Fernando et al. (2024).
At contention were the conclusions of a Johns Hopkins research team who opined:
https://hub.jhu.edu/2024/03/07/alien-meteor-truck/
"Whatever was found on the sea floor is totally unrelated to this meteor, regardless of whether it was a natural space rock or a piece of alien spacecraft—even though we strongly suspect that it wasn't aliens," Fernando added.
Added March 18, 2024
Planetary Science
Interstellar Signal Linked To Aliens Was Actually Just A Truck, Johns Hopkins University, March 7, 2024
https://hub.jhu.edu/2024/03/07/alien-meteor-truck/
"The findings from a Johns Hopkins University-led team raise doubts that materials pulled last year from the ocean are alien materials from a 2014 meteor fireball"
"Sound waves thought to be from a 2014 meteor fireball north of Papua New Guinea were almost certainly vibrations from a truck rumbling along a nearby road, new Johns Hopkins University–led research shows. The findings raise doubts that materials pulled last year from the ocean are alien materials from that meteor, as was widely reported."
'Interstellar meteor' vibrations actually caused by a truck, study suggests, space.com, March 11
https://www.space.com/interstellar-meteor-sound-signal-claim-truck
"A new study casts more doubt on the supposed success of an interstellar fishing expedition."
"On Jan. 8, 2014, a space rock about 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) wide exploded over the western Pacific Ocean. In 2019, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb and his colleague Amir Siraj determined that the intruder came from outside our solar system, a conclusion backed three years later by U.S. Space Command."
"That would make the object, called CNEOS 2014-01-08, our first known interstellar visitor; its arrival predated by three years that of the puzzling 'Oumuamua, which zoomed past Earth in 2017."
"Loeb and his team soon decided to hunt for pieces of the interstellar meteor. In June 2023, they dragged a magnetic sled across the seafloor in the presumed drop zone near Papua New Guinea, hunting for metallic pieces of CNEOS 2014-01-08, or, as the researchers call it, IM1."
"Last July, Loeb announced that this effort was a success: The expedition had collected hundreds of millimeter-scale spherules, whose discovery, he wrote, "opens a new frontier in astronomy, where what lay outside the solar system is studied through a microscope rather than a telescope."
My Comments
As of March 18, 2024 the SETI Nuggets Editor has not seen any rebuttal by members of the Harvard University Galileo Project. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/home.
Added July 9, 2023
We Have Discovered Spherules from the Path of the First Recognized Interstellar Meteor, IM1, Avi Loeb, June 21, 2023
My Comments
So far rhe Galileo team is not claiming their ~millimeter-size samples are from the IM1 interstellar meteor. The fragments may be from many other sources as the sediment within the IM1 ocean path probably contains billions of meteor fragments.
Are any of the observed fragments artificial? Anomalous chemical composition may be the result of natural processes. What evidence of artificial origin is available with millimeter-size samples?
Doing some cursory research on spherical nodules, it appears Mars has a huge number of spherical nodules.
See:
Loose hematite spherules at Eagle Crater. Spherule diameters are 3-6 mm.
Close-up of sediment matrix with embedded hematite spherules at Eagle Crater. The central (partially embedded) spherule is 3.7 mm in diameter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_spherules#/media/File:1M130760791EFF0454P2933M2M1.jpg
Small, loose hematite spherules northwest of Victoria Crater. Spherule diameters are 1 - 2 mm.
Added April 18, 2023
Discovering Extraterrestrials Offers Benefits, Not An Existential Risk, The Debrief, April 11, 2023
Professor Avi Loeb, Features, in Our Cosmic Neighborhood
https://thedebrief.org/discovering-extraterrestrials-offers-benefits-not-an-existential-risk/
"Moreover, we did not reach them as of yet, and so by reaching us first - they would demonstrate that they are farther along in their technological progress. From a cosmic perspective, they are likely to have benefitted from thousands, millions or even billions of years of scientific progress."
"Given these cosmic circumstances, advanced extraterrestrials would not be threatened by our current scientific knowledge. Our species would look as insignificant as an ant colony in the crack of a pavement appearing to the eyes of a fast biker."
"Since extraterrestrial technologies will likely be far more advanced, we can benefit greatly from encountering them. For that reason, we must proactively search for technological probes near Earth as a learning opportunity about our cosmic neighbors."
"An encounter with a superior form of extraterrestrial technology would offer humanity the opportunity to acquire new scientific knowledge that goes beyond what we had learned over the past century."
My Comments
Professor Avi Loeb conjectures ETC probes or the ET senders of the probes are probably not a threat to humans on Earth. Also he speculates that an encounter with an ETC culture would possibly be very rewarding. I agree with Dr. Loeb on those points.
However, he does not provide a solution for the Fermi Paradox. No answer to, Where are the ETS if they are prevalent in the universe? He describes the benefits of an ETC encounter for humans but does not speculate what is the gain for the ETCs broadcasting the probes.
As a professor of astronomy he can choose his research approaches, but he does not, at least in the Debrief article, explain why he thinks SETI goals might be fulfilled searching for interstellar physical objects rather than detecting anomalous radio or light waves.
See: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/project-goal
The ETC object approach appears to analyze a very small dataset, 1) oumuamua and the 2) interstellar meteor CNEOS 2014-01-08. Searching for ET signals broadcast in radio waves, not physical objects, can potentially capture and analyze millions or billions of data points.
Finally the cow in the room, why doesn't Professor Avi Loeb talk about the strong evidence in the UAP reports with some data acquired by reliable people and technologies? For example UAPs data captured by a US carrier group?
Note: According to one of the the Galileo Project goals, "terrestrial technology explanations for many of the presently inexplicable UAP". Why does Professor Avi Loeb surmise UAPs have a terrestrial explanation? Does the questionable principle of parsimony or occam's razor really outweigh the growing mountain of UAP data while the same winnowing tools are not equally applicable to the oumuamua class objects?
I wonder if a kumbaya approach to gaining and using science concepts from ETCs millions of years more advanced than current scientific knowledge will occur in a friendly manner. To the best of my knowledge, the security clearances for researching ETs are sky high evidencing the desire to gain an edge on our near peers. Confirmed ET data might be a game changer.
That is why I founded the SETI Nuggets Think Tank. I am looking for sole ownership of a million year or more boost in technological knowledge.
Also see:
More Fermi Paradox Explanations
Added March 7, 2023
Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, Draft version March 4, 2023
Abraham (Avi) Loeb1 and Sean M. Kirkpatrick
Galileo Project, Astronomy Department, Harvard University and Director of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office of Defense Pentagon
https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/LK1.pdf
Galileo Project Ground Rules
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo
1. We do not work with classified information or unreliable past data.
2. Our analysis of the data is based on known physics.
3. Our data and analysis will be freely published, documented and archived.
4. No results will be released except through scientifically-accepted channels of publication.
Excerpt from "Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena":
"The search for UAP, and the characterization of UAP, requires bounding the search plan with physics-based constraints on what we are searching for. This paper aims to constrain one aspect of the UAP hypothesis with parameters that govern the movement and interaction of a UAP with Earth’s atmosphere to eliminate or bound observational uncertainties. Some data collected to date, while arising from multiple sensors, have uncertainties in one or more dimensions, leaving the exploitation of the data with a significant range of interpretations. This inevitably leaves open the debate on what some objects are, and whether or not they exhibited truly anomalous behavior. Specifically, if some observed UAP are of extraterrestrial origin, there are some practical limits on the interpretation of observed and measured data resulting from physics-based constraints."
"Claims of objects exceeding the transonic to supersonic range should be evaluated against the above known physics of ionization, radar reflectivity, temperature, sonic booms, and fireballs. All of which can more effectively and accurately bound the velocity, and hence drive the range calculation. This will, in turn, when matched with the specifics of the sensor, allow for better estimates of the size, shape, and mass of the object in question."
Wikipedia Pentagon UFO videos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_UFO_videos
"On November 14, 2004, fighter pilot Commander David Fravor of the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group claims to have investigated radar indications of a possible target off the coast of southern California. Fravor said the operator had told him that the USS Princeton (CG-59), part of the strike group, had been tracking unusual aircraft for two weeks prior to the incident."
"The aircraft would appear at 80,000 feet (24,000 m) before descending rapidly toward the sea, and stopping at 20,000 feet (6,100 m) and hovering. Fravor reported that he saw an object, white and oval, hovering above an ocean disturbance. He estimated that the object was about 40 feet (12 m) long. Fravor and another pilot, Alex Dietrich, said in an interview that a total of four people (two pilots and two weapons systems officers in the back seats of the two airplanes) witnessed the object for about 5 minutes. Fravor says that as he spiraled down to get closer to the object, the object ascended, mirroring the trajectory of his airplane, until the object disappeared."
The Twining Memo
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20797978/twining-memo.pdf
General Twining's 1947 memo describes UAPs with absence of trail and normally no associated sounds.
My Comments
I think Professor Avi Loeb's assumption standard models of physics will always be the correct and applicable laws of physics is erroneous. Using current laws of physics is only the correct starting point to analyze UAPs.
It is reasonably certain the standard model of physics, as known by today's scientists, will dramatically change in the future. The laws of physics known by ET civilizations are probably unrecognizable by today's scientists.
If you search for ET manufactured UAPs it is essential to assume ETs know more advanced physics than contemporary scientists. ET civilizations may have existed for millions of years and contrary to what the authors of this research paper opine, ET vehicles probably, if not certainly, will be built using a different known set of laws of physics than are known in today's research labs.
Consider this thought experiment, Show a scientist from 300 years ago a car, airplane, television, internet, computer, mobile telephone, etc. it would be an error if the observer said: These devices do not exist because they are incompatible with our known laws of physics.
Note: Many scientists who take a cursory look at the facts surrounding the Nimitz Tic Tac incident ignore this: "USS Princeton (CG-59), part of the strike group, had been tracking unusual aircraft for two weeks prior to the incident." Were the cruiser and fighters tracking shadows?
Galileo Project Plans to Search for Interstellar Meteorite Fragments on the Floor of the Ocean, by the SETI Nuggets editor, January 4, 2023
When I first heard about the Galileo ocean expedition project I thought it sounded like looking for a pin in a haystack. However, searching the skies for a SETI signal may be more difficult than finding an ET artifact on the floor of the ocean.
Here is a description of the Galileo ocean expedition project:
An Ocean Expedition by the Galileo Project to Retrieve Fragments of the First Large Interstellar Meteor CNEOS 2014-01-08, Sept. 1, 2022
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.00092.pdf
From the section: "Plan for the Ocean Expedition"
"Our plan is to mobilize a ship with a magnetic sled deployed using a long line winch. We will be operating approximately 300 km north of Manus Island. The team will consist of seven sled operators, plus the scientific team."
"The goal of the expedition is to recover 0.1 mm size fragments from the meteorite that exploded over the Bismarck sea in 2014. The recovered fragments will be carefully analyzed and will be shared with the global scientific community. We will tow a sled mounted with magnets, cameras and lights on the ocean foor inside of a 10 km10 km search box. A number of sources have been used to narrow the search site to this relatively small search box. A sled, 2 m long,1 m wide and 0:2 m centimeters tall weighing about 55 kg, will be towed along the seabed to sample for ferro-magnetic meteorite fragments from the CNEOS 2014-01-08."
"The trip envisions ten survey days during which an the survey area will be sampled in down-current runs, corresponding to roughly westerly courses. The sled body will be a 10 cm thick block of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW) with 20 cm tall steel runners on each side. Rare earth magnets embedded in the UHMW are designed to capture any ferro-magnetic particles that the sled encounters. The tow speed will be about 3:3 km=hr. On each 10-km run, an area 10 km by 1 meter will be disturbed."
"The sled will be recovered after each run to remove any particles attached to the magnets. The maximum depth of deposition will be 5 cm because we assess the sea foor in the region to be composed of calcareous ooze or clay and that the sedimentation rate is on the order of 1 mm1 cm per thousand years (Webb 2021). Each 11-km run will take 3 hours. In seven survey days, considering turns and recovery times, we expect to have about 126 efective towing hours in the field or almost the equivalent of 40 10-km lines. This would disturb an area of 0:4 km to a depth of no more than five cm."
My Comments
1. Searching Google January 4, 2023 for 'Galileo Project ocean expedition' it tentatively appears the actual project of searching for fragments of CNEOS 2014-01-08 under the ocean has not occured.
2. The https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.00092 article says: "The goal of the expedition is to recover 0.1 mm size fragments from the meteorite that exploded over the Bismarck sea in 2014."
I am not sure if the Galileo Project expedition search area is close to the search area for the MH370 airliner that presumably is at the bottom of the sea.
It seems incongruent the Galileo Project is planning to search the ocean floor for 0.1 mm size meteorite fragments, when teams of researchers cannot find the location of the MH370 airliner.
See: Seafloor experts publish new view of zone where Malaysia Airlines flight 370 might lie, phys.org, May 27, 2014
https://phys.org/news/2014-05-seafloor-experts-publish-view-zone.html
Added Feb 7, 2022
Harvard Professor, Avi Loeb UFOs, The Galileo Project & The Scientific Community, Project Unity, Feb 2, 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vk9P01FmjM&ab_channel=ProjectUnity
According to my understanding of the Galileo Project website, the project categorizes sources of UAP data as follows: historical | current, and classified | public.
I do not know if the Galileo Project can include data sourced from NASA because NASA's UAP data may be classified if budgeted by DoD. As I have opined in previous SETI Nuggets posts, I believe NASA has had for decades definitive evidence of ET provenance UAPs. For example, see the General Twining message and distribution list which includes NACA the predecessor of NASA.
The Galileo Project excludes historical and classified data no matter how compelling.
As I previously mentioned in this SETI Nuggets website, there is another source of UAP data, not mentioned in the Galileo Project website, that could potentially be a great source of non-classified UAP data: Data from commercial airline crews and air traffic controllers.
Obtaining UAP data from commercial airlines could provide inputs from thousands of additional real-time radars and other sensors managed by airline personnel.
Of course UAP data from commercial airlines may not be captured in real time by the Galileo Project's telescopes, but the commercial airline UAP reports could include a lot of radar and other high resolution images.
For more information see:
The Galileo Project founded by Harvard astronomy professor Dr, Avi Loeb is starting a voyage of discovery. These are the stated Galileo Project goals:
"The Galileo Project research group will aim to identify the nature of UAP and ‘Oumuamua-like interstellar objects using the standard scientific method based on a transparent analysis of open scientific data to be collected using optimized instruments."
"The Galileo Project follows three major avenues of research:"
"1. Obtain High-resolution, Multi-detector UAP Images, Discover their Nature."
"2. Search for and In-Depth Research on ‘Oumuamua-like Interstellar Objects."
"3. Search for Potential Extraterrestrial Technological Civilizations (ETC) Satellites."
My Comments
The project goals 1 and 3 (above) both make an incorrect assumption the ETC is surveying or exploring Earth.
Excerpt from goal #1:
"If an ETC is discovered to be surveying Earth using UAP, then we have to assume that the ETC has mastered passive radar, optical and infrared technologies."
Excerpt from goal #3:
"Discovering potential 1 meter-scale or smaller satellites that may be exploring Earth, e.g., in polar orbits a few hundred km above Earth, may become feasible with VRO in 2023 and later, but if radar, optical and infrared technologies have been mastered by an ETC, then very sophisticated large telescopes on Earth might be required."
There is no reason to assume UAPs are surveying or exploring Earth. Those assumptions are possibilities out of many others.
For more information see: Think Like An ET
Added December 7, 2021, by the SETI Nuggets Editor
A goal of SETI and searching for ET manufactured UAPs is to acquire knowledge that leapfrogs current science by millions or billions of years.
The Harvard University Galileo Project spells out its rules. "The analysis of the data will be based solely on known physics and will not entertain fringe ideas about extensions to the standard model of physics."
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/news/statement-ground-rules
If scientists limit the scope of their research to analyzing data based on laws of known physics, they are almost certainly drawing an incorrect assumption that standard laws of physics can explain the science underlying ET interstellar spacecraft.
High resolution photographs and sensor capture may be possible and would be a significant achievement. However, there is probably no chance current physics can explain the ET UAP's flight characteristics which appear to exhibit instantaneous acceleration and transmodal flight.
Perhaps the governing rule can be recrafted to say theories outside current standard physics are both necessary and highly encouraged. That would be refreshing. Of course any research group, such as the Galileo Project, can formulate ground rules as they want.
Existing UAP Data
From what I know, the Pentagon already has data confirming some UAPs they detected on multiple military sensors display aeronautical behavior that defies the known laws of physics.
I think that passes the ET test. If it flies like an ET originated UAP it probably is.
It would be desirable to obtain multiple civilian HD images of LGM crewed UAPs, but it would be unwise to discard existing military and commercial aircraft data. Congress was briefed secretly on UAPs, not on balloons or flocks of birds.
Added November 2, 2021
"The Galileo Project lead Professor Avi Loeb announced the additions of Mr. Luis Elizondo and Mr. Christopher Mellon to the project team as research affiliates. Noting their depth of experience investigating the subject of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), and their shared interest in open and transparent study of the phenomena, Loeb welcomed them as the latest members of a diverse and growing Galileo Project team."
“The Galileo Project will greatly benefit from the broad knowledge base and wisdom of Elizondo and Mellon,” said Professor Loeb. “We all share the goal of identifying the nature of UAP and of anomalous interstellar objects like `Oumuamua.”
My Comments
In my opinion, Professor Avi Loeb, Luis Elizondo, and Christopher Mellon all have definitive knowledge about ET manufactured UAPs.
My intel is Dr. Avi Loeb is connected to Israeli general and UFO book author Dr. Chaim Eshed, and Luis Elizondo, and Christopher Mellon to the Pentagon. They all know there are many UAPs with ET origins flying in Earth's airspace. My guess is NORAD detects ET built UAPs frequently if not continually. I think if a government has UFOs in warehouses they should bring them out to show the public.