Stephen Curran Photo: supplied
A few weeks ago, Kim Hill spoke to Professor Avi Loeb, the former chair of astrophysics at Harvard University, who believes an object that passed through our solar system had extra-terrestrial origins.
Loeb declared the object, dubbed Oumuamua, was most likely a piece of advanced technology created by a distant alien civilisation.
He argues that it is plausible that the object was driven by a light sail, or was a light sail, the work of an alien civilisation and that has brought down upon his head a media and scientific furore.
Dr Stephen Curran is a senior lecturer in astrophysics at Victoria University who, hearing the interview, declared Avi Loeb's theory 'utter crackpottery'.
Although he says the light sail theory is a good one.
“A light sail, as Avi said correctly, is just like a regular sail but it uses sunlight to propel it and that can give you an acceleration, the earth could be a light sail it’s just too heavy to move.
“Anything which light hits it imparts a tiny bit of momentum and so anything could be a light sail.”
So, was what was seen artificial? Almost certainly not says Dr Curran.
“An analogy I use is it’s like seeing a butterfly and concluding it must be man-made because we use wings on aircraft,” he says.
We copy nature, not the other way around, he says.
“It’s just a big bit of rock, it has an unusual shape and that’s what special about it.”
Curran “loves” aliens he says and would love there to be intelligent life out there but the “depressing: fact is it’s unlikely.
“We humans are biased into thinking intelligence is the end point of evolution, it’s not, ask a crocodile or an elephant. End point evolution is a big nose or sharp teeth.
“So, the universe could be teeming with life, but there’s no reason it would necessarily evolve to be intelligent.”
And saying UFOs are alien because we can’t explain what they are, doesn’t cut it, he says.
“You have to use Ockham’s Razor and say how likely is it to be aliens?
“Say there was intelligence in the universe that was nearby the timescales to travel here are phenomenal…. You’re talking about tens of thousands of years.”
Artist's impression of the interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua Photo: RNZ / Supplied
