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If the moon orbited Earth on the same plane that Earth circles the sun, then we d have a total lunar eclipse at each full moon, and a total solar eclipse at each new moon. But that doesn t happen because the lunar orbit is inclined to Earth s orbit by about 5 degrees.
May 16, 2021
Theoretical physicist Avi Loeb of Harvard wants you to think seriously about the possibility that an artifact made by an extraterrestrial intelligence passed through our solar system in 2017. This object – called ‘Oumuamua, or
scout, by earthly astronomers – was traveling at a speed indicating an origin outside our solar system. But we never got close enough to it to see what it was. For the past few years, Loeb has argued that ‘Oumuamua was an alien artifact. In this episode of the University of Chicago’s Big Brains podcast, Loeb talks about the controversy and explains why he thinks we need to invest more in the search for alien life by developing the field of