Avi Loeb: Methane Could Be a Biosignature

Harvard's Avi Loeb says James Webb found methane on an interstellar object exactly where it shouldn't be — and he's testing whether microbes could explain it. In 2031, a Japanese spacecraft is set to land on a spinning object so reflective and sturdy it might actually be a lost Soviet probe. Avi Loeb created the Loeb scale for ranking interstellar object anomalies. We cover: why 3I/ATLAS's methane is harder to explain than the carbon dioxide found earlier, the microbe paper Avi is finishing this week, why he disagrees with a new "UFO" reanalysis of old Palomar sky survey plates, and why he just re-ranked Oumuamua now that we know more about "dark comets." Timestamps 0:00 – The methane JWST shouldn't have found 0:27 – Could 3I/ATLAS be carrying microbes? 2:17 – The Palomar "UFO" reanalysis, debunked 5:25 – Re-ranking Oumuamua on the Loeb scale 5:35 – Why this "dark comet" might be Soviet 8:12 – Could aliens be watching, not interfering? Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcYtO3OmyP4 ——— 📬 Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt 🌠 Have a .edu email and live in the USA 🇺🇸? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu 🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 🎯 Support Into the Impossible on Patreon — get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating ⭐ Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 My books: Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 🌐 More: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianKeating 📚 Substack https://briankeating.substack.com/ss ✍️ Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast #intotheimpossible #briankeating #science #physics #astronomy #cosmology #podcast #universe