--- title: "Scientists Says Those Interstellar Debris May Be Something Totally Different" description: "A fellow scientist is not convinced that Harvard's resident UFO-hunter found evidence of interstellar debris at the bottom of the Pacific." date: "2023-09-10" modified: "2023-09-10" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/interstellar-debris-theory" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "avi loeb" - "interstellar objects" - "meteorites" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Says Those Interstellar Debris May Be Something Totally Different ![A fellow scientist is not convinced that Harvard's resident UFO-hunter found evidence of interstellar debris at the bottom of the Pacific.]() *LEXINGTON, MA, USA - AUGUST 8: Abraham 'Avi' Loeb, a Harvard University astrophysicist shows a tube containing meteorite fragments recovered from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts, United States on August 8, 2023. Abraham 'Avi' Loeb claims that the meteorite fragments recovered from the ocean floor could belong to a spacecraft. (Photo by Anibal Martel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) \Image: Getty Images\* ## Debunk Science Harvard's resident alien hunter believes he's found evidence of something from outside our Solar System at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean — but one of his fellow scientists isn't convinced. In a detailed takedown [published by *The Conversation*](), British planetary scientist Monica Grady wrote that the conclusions drawn by Harvard's Avi Loeb are a "little inconsistent." Grady takes issue specifically with Loeb's assertion that the tiny "spherules" he [found at the bottom of the Pacific](), based on an analysis of their chemical composition, are tiny pieces of either IM1, an interstellar meteorite that crash-landed in the ocean in 2014 — an object, he's suggested, could be the [remains of a probe from an intelligence civilization](). As the British researcher notes, Loeb's chemical analysis is sound — but he may have been looking in the wrong direction for the spherules' source. There were, as Grady notes, [dozens of nuclear tests]() conducted by the US military more than half a century ago on the Marshall Islands, which are located only a few hundred kilometers from the region off the coast of Papua New Guinea where Loeb and his team found the itty-bitty fragments. "The spherules could be fallout from these tests — a type of human-generated supernova," she wrote. ## Go Forth To test the theory out, Loeb — or another enterprising scientist — would need only to "look for spherules in the beach sands and ocean floor around Bikini Atoll and Enewetak, where the nuclear tests took place," the Open University planetary science professor wrote. Grady also noted that there's another "obvious" method that doesn't require travel to try to determine the spherules' origin, too: measuring their "oxygen isotopic composition." "This parameter is based on the three stable isotopes of oxygen," she wrote. "The ratios between those can be used to conclusively determine whether material is terrestrial or extraterrestrial." "Assuming the spherules are not radioactive," Grady added, "I would be happy to facilitate their analysis." Though she admits that her explanation is as "speculative" as Loeb's, Grady — who has been [unconvinced by the Harvard astronomer's claims]() about the spherules for a while now — says that after learning more about them, she remains skeptical. "I am afraid that I come to the same conclusion that I did last time," she wrote. "Loeb has recovered some interesting particles, but none of the evidence he presents is sufficiently convincing to infer that the materials are either connected with IM1, or are from an alien spaceship." **More on off-world rocks:** [*AI Is Now Identifying Killer Asteroids Before They Approach Earth*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()