Professor Avi Loeb, who is head of astronomy at Harvard University, reiterated that it is indeed “quite possible” that we have interacted with alien technology without realising. Professor Loeb made the astonishing revelation this week to Express.co.uk. He explained: “It’s quite possible that we did detect some traces of other civilisations but haven’t recognised them.
“The reason is we often imagine what we know already – what we have developed ourselves.
“And until we develop the appropriate technology, we would not recognise it out there in the sky.”
The esteemed astronomer elaborate that there was nothing far fetched about the search for alien life.
He said: “Of course, we should be open minded and not dismiss the opportunity to look at the sky.
“Many people adopt the attitude that it’s never aliens.
“And this approach is similar to an ostrich putting its head in the sand and not even looking through the telescope to search for it.
“I think we should be open minded. We should look for industrial pollution on the atmospheres of other planets and relics from dead civilisations out there.
“I call it space archaeology: basically digging into space and searching for traces of other civilisations that may not exist anymore.”
One such object, Professor Loeb contends, could be ‘Oumuamua’ – a thin, cigar-shaped entity that briefly shot through our solar system.
No one can currently explain the reason for its trajectory towards the centre of the galaxy, nor its lack of gaseous emissions.
Professor Loeb’s contentions are echoed by NASA scientist Silvano P Colombano, who similarly suggests that we may have already encountered extraterrestrials.
The scientist wrote in a research paper: “I simply want to point out the fact that the intelligence we might find and that might choose to find us (if it hasn’t already) might not be at all produced by carbon-based organisms like us.
“If we adopt a new set of assumptions about what forms of higher intelligence and technology we might find, some of those phenomena might fit specific hypotheses, and we could start some serious enquiry.”