"There's no denying the allure of alien artifacts. Science fiction is awash in the material remnants of extraterrestrial civilizations, which surface in everything from the classic books of Arthur C. Clarke to game franchises like Mass Effect and Outer Wilds."
"The discovery of the first interstellar objects in the solar system within the past decade has sparked speculation that they could be alien artifacts or spaceships, though the scientific consensus remains that all three of these visitors have natural explanations."
""In the history of technosignatures, the possibility that there could be artifacts in the solar system has been around for a long time," says Adam Frank, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester. "We've been thinking about this for decades. We've been waiting for this to happen," he continues. "But being responsible scientists means holding to the highest standards of evidence and also not crying wolf.""
Speculative interest in extraterrestrial artifacts spans science fiction and scientific inquiry. The recent discovery of interstellar visitors prompted speculation about artificial origins, but prevailing scientific judgment attributes them to natural causes. The possibility of encountering technosignatures and artifacts has been anticipated since the start of the space age, prompting emphasis on rigorous standards of evidence and caution. Researchers are developing diverse search methods to detect a wide range of possible remnants—from tiny alloy flecks to large structures—and are exploiting underused resources such as archival photographic sky observations taken before the launch of Sputnik to expand search capabilities.
Read at WIRED
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