This summer, a group of scientists from the Galileo project, led by director Avi Loeb, lifted a large number of small metal balls from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. According to Loeb, these are fragments of an interstellar meteorite or alien probe that exploded on Earth in January 2014. After the first publication of data on the composition of the samples, the scientific community criticized this statement.

In the autumn, several articles devoted to the discovery of the Galileo project group were published. Like Avi Loeb’s articles, these have not been published in leading scientific journals and are available only on his website. arXiv. In fact, the dispute is waged either on this site or in the mass media.

Data regarding the entry of some interstellar objects with a mass of approximately 460 kg into the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of approximately 60 km/s are based on the official statement of the US Department of Defense. There are no other trusted certificates associated with the event. Some scientists believe that the army’s sensors give incorrect parameters and cannot be trusted unconditionally. But even if the object’s speed corresponded to the indicated speed, indicating that it came from outside our galaxy, little would remain of it once it entered the atmosphere; a meteorite or something else would completely evaporate when it hit the air. There would be nothing to retrieve from the bottom of the ocean.

“If the bolide from 2014-01-08 had been interstellar, almost nothing would have survived once it entered the atmosphere – The authors of the new study are professors Stephen Dash of Arizona State University and Alan Jackson of Towson University. “If it were flying at the reported speed (which it must be interstellar), then at least 99.8%, and possibly >99.9999%, would have evaporated in the atmosphere and only a small amount would have accumulated on the seafloor.”

There is also the problem of proving that the samples were obtained from this particular meteorite. Scientists do not know where or whether the meteor in 2014 fell. Finally, it will be very difficult to find tiny fragments of this particular meteorite, which is scanning the ocean within a 48-kilometer radius almost 10 years after its appearance. On the other hand, small metal balls are found all over the sea floor. Some are micrometeorites, others are ejected by volcanoes or formed as a result of the industrial activity of our civilization. They accumulate naturally on the ocean floor over time.

But an expedition from the Papua New Guinea region, over which an interstellar celestial body is believed to have broken apart, returned images in the form of magnetized submillimeter metal balls collected from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Samples were collected by magnetic trawling. Meteorite material is known to be magnetized, so you can tell the difference between, for example, an ordinary stone and a stone from outer space.

In the article on the website arXiv Loeb explained. “abnormal” Characteristics of the samples found. He drew particular attention to five balls containing high amounts of beryllium, lanthanum and uranium. He named these five examples “BeLaU spheres”. He and other researchers later suggested that these strange spheres might be evidence of alien technology.

If we assume the cosmic origin of the samples, they look really strange and are very different in composition from anything encountered before. But as stated in the magazine published on October 23 AAS’s Research Notes In the study, the samples correspond to the profile of substances contained in coal ash. The author of the study, astronomer Patricio Gallardo from the University of Chicago, writes in this connection: “It is unlikely to be of meteor origin”.

As NASA astrobiologist Caleb Scharf wrote about this on the site X, formerly known as Twitter: “What they actually found is evidence of a technological civilization…right here on Earth.”

However, Avi Loeb continues to insist on his version. In particular, he says it is impossible to draw any conclusions without directly examining the samples and that no one else has analyzed them. As for the statement regarding the terrestrial origin of samples obtained from coal burning, there should be no coal mineralization in the search area, as scientists assure. As a result, the ash waste is not magnetized, which also refutes the earthly nature of the samples.

The scientist said 93 percent of the samples collected have not yet been analyzed and warned critics against drawing conclusions about the origin of the spheres until all data is available. Making definitive statements about the nature of the beads before they have been properly analyzed in a peer-reviewed study. “unprofessional”says supporter of the interstellar origin of the samples.