Are Oumuamua and the tic-tac UFOs that have baffled the Pentagon linked? Harvard astrophysicist says mysterious space object that passed through

'Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that the U.S. government believes that some of these [UAP] objects are not human in origin,' Loeb continues.

'This leaves two possibilities: either UAP are natural terrestrial phenomena or they are extraterrestrial in origin.'

The Harvard researcher notes there should be 'a quadrillion' objects similar to 'Oumuamua within the solar system if they have a natural origin, but that does not appear to be the case.

To date, astronomers have only found two ISOs: 'Oumuamua and Comet 2I/Borisov, which was discovered in 2019.

A number of theories - including that it is a hydrogen iceberg or nitrogen iceberg- have been postulated about the origins or the composition of the 900-foot-long cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua since it was discovered in October 2017.

Loeb says, however, the fact that 'Oumuamua is artificial in origin has to remain on the table until better data is obtained.

'Given the challenges that these proposals face and the fact that they contemplate something that we had never seen before, the possibility of an artificial origin should be left on the table,' Loeb told DailyMail.com.

Though the link between 'Oumuamua and artificially created UAP is highly speculative in nature, Loeb notes science should not thumb its collective nose at the idea, but rather study it more.

'But rather than simply wonder about possible scenarios, we should collect better scientific data and clarify the nature of UAP,' Loeb penned.

'This can be done by deploying state-of-the-art cameras on wide-field telescopes that monitor the sky. The sky is not classified; only government-owned sensors are. By searching for unusual phenomena in the same geographical locations from where the UAP reports came, scientists could clear up the mystery in a transparent analysis of open data.'

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