Harvard scientist Avi Loeb recovered debris from an interstellar object in the Pacific Ocean. Pic credit: The Hill YouTube
Officials of Papua New Guinea accused Harvard scientist Avi Loeb of recovering interstellar material from waters off the coast of their country without first obtaining research permits, the Sunday Times reported.
The latest news comes after Paranormal Papers reported that Loeb, professor of astrophysics at Harvard University, announced on June 21 that his team retrieved spherules from a space object that crashed into the atmosphere on January 8, 2014.
The team recovered the spherules from the floor of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Papua in the Southwest Pacific region.
The professor said IM1 could be from an alien UFO. He added that analysis of the material could provide evidence of a technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization.
Papua officials said Loeb did not have permission
Officials from the Manus Province of Papua New Guinea accused Loeb and his team of taking fragments believed to be from IM1 from their territorial waters without seeking permission from the government, the Daily Mail reported.
The researchers reportedly recovered it from waters near Manus, the largest of the Admiralty Islands in northern Papua New Guinea.
The Sunday Times reported that the officials claimed Loeb should have obtained scientific research permits before removing the spherules he claimed may have been from a UFO.
The deputy administrator of the Manus Province, George Penua Polon, accused the team of “cheating” their country by bypassing the formal process to protect their legal rights.
He alleged that the team came without informing them about their mission. He added that the country was in the dark about the nature of the material, its economic and scientific value.
Papua’s National Research Institute, reportedly responsible for overseeing foreign researchers in the country, also said the team did not contact them. They allegedly arrived in the country on business visas instead of special exemption visas usually granted to visiting foreign researchers.
Polon alleged that authorities were still processing the application for the exemption visas when they arrived and left with the material.
IM1 is part of our history, an official reportedly said
According to the Daily Mail, Robert McCallum, an expert, and consultant on marine expeditions, claimed that Loeb and his colleagues applied for a marine research permit.
They also offered to give information about their mission to the authorities, but officials instructed them to contact the PNG University of Technology. He claimed that a scientist from the university joined them on the recovery expedition.
McCallum said that the permits issued by the government addressed only the extraction and exploitation of biological and geological material with economic and commercial.
He argued that the material they recovered was a space object without commercial or economic value.
But a PNG National Research Institute spokesperson said that even if the recovered objects did not have economic value, they had cultural value.
“It is part of our country’s history,” Wilson Thompson reportedly said.
Loeb found 50 microscopic spherules
Loeb announced in June that his team retrieved 50 spherules from the ocean floor near Manus Island. The spherules were microscopic particles about 0.3 millimeters in size.
He concluded they were part of the debris from an interstellar object that may have been an alien UFO. Loeb argued that its high speed and trajectory when it entered the atmosphere suggested it was either an interstellar meteor or the product of alien technology.
He added that the composition further suggested it was an alien spacecraft or UFO. According to Loeb, the analysis showed it had an anomalous composition that did not resemble space rocks.
IM1 consisted of iron and lower concentrations of magnesium and titanium. The material was tougher than space rocks. The strength and toughness suggested it could be an alloy created by a technological civilization.
Although scientists believed IM1 was a meteor, it may have been an alien UFO.
“The reason for considering an artificial origin for this half-meter-sized object is that it was tougher in material strength than all other 272 meteors in the CNEOS catalog of NASA,” he said.