Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars

Intelligent life is out there, according to this implausible treatise. Harvard astronomer Loeb (Extraterrestrial) urges humanity to take a greater initiative in seeking out extraterrestrial civilizations (“ETCs”) because they “may only wish to be discovered by a civilization capable of doing so” and may have already left “artifacts” on Earth waiting to be discovered. He argues that an interstellar object detected passing through our solar system in 2017 was likely manufactured by aliens, given its unusually flat shape and slow velocity, and laments that scientists didn’t have more sophisticated instruments to study it. To better prepare for potential brushes with ETCs, Loeb stresses the need for observatories dedicated to examining “small near-Earth objects” and more government funding for such projects as the 2023 expedition he’s leading to retrieve fragments of an interstellar meteor—the toughness of which, he suggests, indicates it might be an alien artifact—that landed in the Pacific Ocean in 2014. Loeb makes some questionable assumptions (“The fastest way [for humans] to ascend the ladder of civilizations is to” receive a hand from more advanced aliens), and his “anything’s possible” attitude will do little to sway skeptics, as when he likens the search for aliens to looking for lost car keys: “The more concerted the effort to find them the more likely, and quickly, you will.” This doesn’t quite convince. (Aug.)