Avi Loeb, a Harvard scientist who keeps suggesting that an interstellar object could be a 'potentially hostile alien threat', has taken up a $1,000 wager on whether we'll officially discover aliens before 2030.
He's the man who has repeatedly said that the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is showing 'qualities that we've never seen for comets' and warrants further investigation.
However, NASA say it's a comet and are adamant it 'does comet things' as well as being something that 'poses no threat to Earth' and will only come within 170 million miles of us.
Despite this, Loeb has accused NASA of 'pretending to be the adults in the room' as he's said people need to keep an open mind about the possibility 3I/ATLAS is really some kind of alien mothership.
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Now he's challenged himself to put his money where his mouth is by accepting an open bet on whether or not aliens will be discovered by the beginning of the next decade.
In a new blog post, he explained that Dr. Michael Shermer, director of The Skeptics Society, had offered a $1,000 bet that aliens won't show up by 2030.
The official terms of the bet are that Shermer wagers: "Discovery or disclosure of alien visitation to Earth in the form of UFOs, UAPs, or any other technological artifact or alien biological form, as confirmed by major scientific institutions and government agencies, will not happen by 31 December, 2030."
So he's in the 'no aliens by 2030' camp, but Loeb has taken the bet and thus the opposite position.
His terms of victory are thus: "By 31 Dec 31 2030, at least two of these three scientific organizations - NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the American Astronomical Society - will affirm that discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence in the form of UAPs, UFOs, or any other interstellar objects that are determined to be ETI technological in nature, or any alien biological life form found here on Earth, has been made."
So, it's the discovery of aliens confirmed by two out of three organisations up against that not happening by New Year's Eve, 2030.
The loser donates a thousand big ones to The Galileo Project, so the money is going to science either way, and if Loeb wins the bet one imagines the scientific community is going to have a busy time on their hands.
Loeb said that humanity should 'engage in the scientific search for extraterrestrial technological artifacts' and would rather be an 'optimist' on these matters.
Amidst his regular messages on the status of 3I/ATLAS, he's said our best chance to get a look at it will come on 19 December when it comes closest to Earth, and this will also be a prime chance to see what's going on with the interstellar object.
The result of the bet between scientists is still several years off, so we'll just have to wait and see how it all pans out.
Joe Harker