It has sometimes occurred to us that we were a bit harsh with Avi Loeb, the Harvard astronomer who feels sure that space debris ’Oumuamua is an extraterrestrial lightsail.
Never mind. He has come up with a very reasonable idea for searching for evidence of other civilizations in our galaxy: Look for alien debris on our still, lifeless, atmosphere-free Moon:
Loeb notes that, using realistic time scales, even if ‘Oumuamua were an alien probe (as he still argues it is*), it took 10,000 years to cross our solar system. Our technological civilization is not even that old. And other alien craft might take a million years to travel 100 light years. In that case, malevolent or otherwise, ET may as well be history or even fiction.
However, he offers a suggestion we can follow up on: While continuing to map the Moon, search the surface for crashed or discarded extraterrestrial equipment. There is no atmosphere or geological (or biological) activity there. Thus it could be a “museum of extraterrestrial equipment.” Actually, a single fragment of ET equipment would be pretty decisive but a museum would be a massive tourist attraction — space tourism with a purpose. For public awareness, it even fits in with the new NBC TV series, Debris.
News, “SETI director warns: Those aliens could be malevolent” at Mind Matters News
It’s one of the few places we could realistically hope to find it.
See also: SETI director warns: Those aliens could be malevolent
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Sci-fi Saturday: New NBC X-files clone “Debris” feels disjointed. David Zeiger: Perhaps that’s intentional, though many critics aren’t getting it yet. Viewers are asked to ponder, will disruptive alien technologies heal or destroy? Is there a broader, cosmic purpose to our existence?