Humans blasted for being ‘impatient’ in contacting aliens by 3I/ATLAS prof

After 3I/ATLAS appeared to be nothing more than just a comet whirling through our solar system, one physicist is becoming frustrated Earth has not found alien life yet

A professor has blasted humanity for stalling in its ability to reach extraterrestrial life. He explained that aliens could be sending a “message in a bottle” to our civilisation, but we are missing it time and time again.

Avi Loeb has been a keen proponent of alien life forms, being one of the few scientists that reckoned 3I/ATLAS was an alien spacecraft. The object, which whizzed past the Earth on Friday (December 19), turned out to be nothing but a comet, despite his insistence it was alien-like.

Since the asteroid’s passing, Avi has expressed his frustration with the human race for not being proactive enough in finding alien life. He said that instead, we as a planet should be doing more to ensure we bridge that gap.

Writing in a blog post on his Medium website, Avi recalled the Voyager Golden Records, which were launched into space during the lift-off of the Voyager probe in 1977. In it are several recordings of music, and messages being sent out to alien life as humanity’s message to the universe.

However, this being nearly 50 years ago, humans are yet to find any real proof of extraterrestrial life. Avi has shown he is unhappy with this lack of progress, penning: “If we are impatient in establishing physical contact with extraterrestrials, we can attempt to do better in reaching our cosmic neighbors with technological artifacts.”

He also blasted the slow speed of our spacecraft, such as Voyager 1, which is currently drifting out of our solar system at a rate of 17 kilometres a second. Contrast this with 3I/ATLAS, which is believed to be travelling at around 264,000 kilometres an hour — a speed simply unmatched by human standards.

But despite his frustrations with the human race at being so slow with its discovery of the mysteries of space, he explained 3I/ATLAS provides us with an opportunity. Avi penned that the fact interstellar objects have been found means that humanity could itself send out more “time capsules” to reach further galaxies.

“One approach would be to design interceptor missions that would deposit analogs of the Voyager’s Golden Records on the surface of a large interstellar object like 3I/ATLAS, with the hope that these records will be recognized by interstellar archaeologists,” Avi hypothesised. “Another approach is to use a high-power laser beam to carve a message on the dry surface of an interstellar asteroid.”

However, Avi admitted that there needs to be clear defined markings that these capsules are those of Earth itself, adding that it could be the equivalent of an “extraterrestrial billboard” guiding alien life to the planet. He added our time capsules could be perfect for “interstellar archaeologists” to learn about our history and civilisation.

Ultimately, future missions are the closest thing we have to trying to make contact with alien life, Avi said. These projects could get even closer than we have with other space-related initiatives, helping us understand even more about the universe and our place within it.

He closed by wishing he was taken onto 3I/ATLAS himself after it whizzed by earlier this weekend. He wrote: “If offered the opportunity, I would have loved to hitchhike 3I/ATLAS and let it carry my remains into interstellar space.”

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