Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

by Avi Loeb

In fact, it is worth admitting up front that the likelihood of scientists ever obtaining demonstrative proof is very remote. Catching up to and photographing ‘Oumuamua is impossible. The data we have is all we will ever have, leaving us the task of hypothesizing explanations that fully account for the evidence. This is, of course, a thoroughly scientific undertaking. No one gets to invent new evidence, no one gets to ignore evidence that is at odds with a hypothesis, and no one gets to—as in the old cartoon of a scientist working through a complex equation—insert “and then a miracle happens.” Perhaps the most dangerous, most worrisome choice, however, would be declaring of ‘Oumuamua, Nothing to see here, time to move along, we’ve learned what we can and we’d best just go back to our old preoccupations. Unfortunately, as of this writing, that seems to be what many scientists have decided to do.