APRIL/MAY 2021 | SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.

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Space&Physics The Age of

Perseverance
A NEW ROVER HAS LANDED ON MARS
AND BEGINS A NEW ERA OF
EXPLORATION ON THE RED PLANET

Plus
TELESCOPES
ON THE
FAR SIDE OF
THE MOON
HAVE WE
BEEN VISITED
BY ALIENS?
ANCIENT
MASSIVE
GALAXIES
WITH COVERAGE FROM
FROM
THE SPACE
EDITOR &PHYSICS
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LIZ TORMES

Onward, Intrepid Rover

In 2008 an engineer friend of mine helped to design the sky crane that lowered the Curiosity rover from the hover-
ing rocket to the surface of Mars. In commemoration, his signature was engraved on a small plaque on the device.
Thirteen years later this past February, that same crane design helped to successfully land Perseverance in the
Jezero Crater on the Red Planet. Our space and physics senior editor Lee Billings and journalist Jonathan O’Cal-
laghan report on this remarkable achievement and detail the tall order of tasks ahead for the fifth robotic visitor to
Mars (see “Perseverance Has Landed! Mars Rover Begins a New Era of Exploration” and “The First 100 Days on
Mars: How NASA’s Perseverance Rover Will Begin Its Mission”).
This time Perseverance is bringing with it nearly 11 million names from Earth to our neighboring planet—each
name stenciled on a silicon chip installed on the rover’s body. Like scraps of paper folded inside bottles floating
across the ocean, these little pieces of our humanity—our names—have been flung far from the surface of our home
planet. Perhaps the goal is the same: to connect, even in a small way, with whatever is found on the other side.
On the Cover
Godspeed, intrepid explorers!
This image was taken during the first drive
of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars on
Andrea Gawrylewski

NASA AND JPL-CALTECH

March 4, 2021. Perseverance landed on
Senior Editor, Collections February 18, 2021, and the team has been
[email protected] spending the weeks since landing checking
out the rover to prepare for surface
operations. This image was taken by the
rover’s Navigation Cameras.

2
 WHAT’S April–May 2021
Volume 4 • Number 2

INSIDE
NASA AND JPL-CALTECH

OPINION
36. Until Recently,
People Accepted the
“Fact” of Aliens in the
NEWS Solar System
For centuries, right up until
4. Perseverance Has
the 1960s, the notion of

NASA, ESA, HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM AND J. BLAKESLEE

Landed! Mars Rover
life on Mars—and
Begins a New Era
elsewhere—wasn’t
of Exploration
considered especially
nasa’s latest mission to
remarkable
the Red Planet will seek
out signs of ancient life, 39. Quantum
gather samples for return Mechanics, Free Will
to Earth and even fly and the Game of Life
a first-of-its-kind Some thoughts triggered
by the death of
NASA AND JPL-CALTECH

interplanetary helicopter
mathematician
7. The First 100 Days
John Conway
on Mars: How nasa’s
Perseverance Rover 42. Did a Super­massive
Will Begin Its Mission FEATURES Black Hole Influence
The space agency’s the Evolution of Life
22. Giant Galaxies from the Universe’s
latest rover set down on 13. Is It a Planet? Astronomers Spy Promising on Earth?
Childhood Challenge Cosmic Origin Stories
February 18, 2021. Potential World around Alpha Centauri The idea isn’t as absurd
Large galaxies are thought to form gradually,
Here is the agenda for The candidate could be a “warm Neptune” or as it might sound
across billions of years of cosmic time. So why do
its initial months a mirage. Either way, it signals the dawn of a astronomers keep finding them in the youthful 44. Physicists Need
10. Galaxy-Size revolution in astronomy early universe? to Be More Careful
Gravitational-Wave 16. Mystery of Spinning Atomic Fragments 26. Telescopes on Far Side of the Moon with How They Name
Detector Hints Solved at Last Could Illuminate the Cosmic Dark Ages Things
at Exotic Physics New experiments have answered the decades- Instruments deployed on missions to the lunar The popular term
Recent results from a old question of how pieces of splitting nuclei get far side might give us an unprecedented view “quantum supremacy,”
pulsar timing array, which their spins of the early universe which refers to quantum
uses dead stars to hunt 19. Quantum Network Is Step toward 30. Astronomer Avi Loeb Says Aliens Have computers outperforming
for gravitational waves, Ultrasecure Internet Visited, and He’s Not Kidding classical ones, is
has scientists speculating Experiment connects three devices with entangled In conversation, the Harvard University professor uncomfortably reminiscent
about cosmic strings and photons, demonstrating a key technique that could explains his shocking hypothesis—and calls out of “white supremacy”
primordial black holes enable a future quantum Internet what he sees as a crisis in science

3
NEWS

Perseverance
Has Landed!
Mars Rover
Begins a New Era
of Exploration
nasa’s latest mission to the
Red Planet will seek out signs
of ancient life, gather samples
for return to Earth and
even fly a first-of-its-kind
interplanetary helicopter

Humanity’s on-again, off-again

exploration of Mars has lived
through its latest make-or-break
moment, and scientists around the
world are breathing sighs of relief.
Shortly after 3:44 p.m. Eastern

NASA AND JPL-CALTECH

Standard Time February 18, 2021, This high-resolution still image is part of
a video taken by several cameras as nasa’s
a visitor from Earth fell from a Perseverance rover touched down on Mars
clear, cold Martian sky into a on February 18, 2021. A camera onboard
the descent stage captured this shot.
3.5-billion-year old, 50-kilome-

4
 NEWS

ter-wide bowl of rock, dust and en-minute planetfall from space to provide breathable air and rocket planet teeming with life.
volcanic ash called Jezero Crater reach Jezero Crater—where its real fuel for future astronauts, who could Seeing no sign of ancient life on
that once held a large lake. Seven hard work will now begin. also use more advanced Marscop- Mars would bolster the case that
minutes earlier it had touched the Perseverance (or even just ters to scout out their surroundings. Earth is indeed rather special,
top of the planet’s atmosphere at “Percy,” for short) is meant to trundle But, truth be told, all of that is suggesting that despite almost
nearly 20,000 kilometers per hour, across the terrain for at least a secondary or supplemental to identical initial conditions no wee
bleeding off most of its speed Martian year (two Earth years), Perseverance’s true reason for being, beasties ever managed to emerge
through friction, protected from the following an ambitious to-do list. which is to determine if life ever on our sister world. In contrast,
resulting fireball by a heat shield. Explore the environment with existed on Mars—and if it ever will. finding an independent origin of life
A supersonic parachute the size of rock-vaporizing lasers and on Mars would be potent evidence
a Little League baseball field ground-penetrating radar, and snap PERSEVERANCE’S QUEST for the mind-boggling notion that
unfurled to slow it further, followed high-resolution panoramas, 3-D “This rover is, at its heart, a robotic the universe is in some sense built
by a final computer-piloted descent stereograms and microscopic geologist and a mobile astrobiolo- for biology’s blossoming. And while
on a robotic jetpack called a sky close-ups with a suite of sophisticat- gist,” said Lori Glaze, head of nasa’s most scientists suspect fossilized
crane, which used a detachable teth- ed cameras? Check. Listen to planetary science division, during a microbes to be the most advanced
er to gently lower the visitor to rest Martian soundscapes, and create public presentation the day before organisms we could discover on
on the crater floor. Far overhead, weather reports with onboard the landing. “We’re really going after the Red Planet, any extant life
orbital spacecraft monitored its sensors? Check. Test a device for the ability to identify which rocks there—even if single-celled—would
progress, awaiting the first signals manufacturing oxygen from the might be most likely to have pre- spur some to call for a planetary
confirming its successful landing, suffocatingly thin air, and launch served the organic fingerprints of life quarantine, to leave Mars to the
which, beamed earthward at the Ingenuity, a first-of-its-kind in the past.” Martians. A seemingly sterile planet
speed of light, would arrive at our four-bladed Marscopter on sorties Since the dawn of the space age, would be, in some respects, the
planet some 11 minutes later. through those alien skies? Check. the Red Planet has been the most most promising scenario for eventu-
At long last, nasa’s Mars Perse- According to Matt Wallace, the prized target for astrobiological al human exploration and even
verance Rover has arrived. Con- project’s deputy project manager at studies, being the closest remotely settlement there.
ceived a decade ago and distilled nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Earth-like body in the solar system. Perseverance promises to bring
from the dreams of generations of (JPL) and a veteran of all previous Although it is currently a cold, hostile us closer to answers for these
scientists, the car-sized, nuclear-fu- Mars rover missions, those latter two desert of a world, billions of years ago interlinked mysteries than any other
eled rover launched in July 2020, tasks and Perseverance’s overall it was warmer and wetter—presum- mission in history. Not the least
months into a world-transforming complexity make it “the first one ably a perfectly fine place for the because of its landing site, Jezero
pandemic, traveling nearly half a I think of as a human precursor basics of biology to arise. But Crater, which harbors one of the
billion kilometers in seven months mission.” Scaled up, its oxygen-pro- somehow, long ago the paths of Mars planet’s largest ancient lake-and-
and surviving a high-tension sev- ducing experiment, MOXIE, could and Earth diverged, leaving only one delta systems and is filled with

5
 NEWS

sediments (and, just maybe, micro- slated to touch down in May of this Perseverance will be the opening tized sample-gathering, such as
fossils) washed in from the sur- year with a rover of its own, seeks to shot in this audacious effort, a Jezero Crater’s floor and rim, as well
rounding watershed. be the sixth). First came a tiny collaboration between nasa and as the site’s enormous delta and the
Additionally, Jezero is sandwiched pathfinder, Sojourner, that in 1997 the European Space Agency margins of its ancient shoreline.
in space and time between two showed roving was possible. Next dubbed the “Mars Sample Return” Now that Perseverance is safely
formative occurrences in Mars’s were the twin Mars Exploration (MSR) campaign. on the surface, the clock is ticking.
history. It lies within Syrtis Major, a Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, that “We need to collect a lot of those
volcanic complex that formed about arrived in 2004 to “follow the water” THE INTERPLANETARY samples very quickly,” Wallace said,
3.8 billion years ago, which itself sits and establish the local abundance of RELAY RACE BEGINS citing 20 samples in one Martian
adjacent to the Isidis Planitia basin, life’s liquescent cornerstone. Those The crux of Perseverance’s MSR year as the mission’s baseline goal.
a gargantuan impact crater that were followed by Perseverance’s work will take place via a turret However many Perseverance
formed about 100 million years near clone and precursor, Curiosity, packed with cameras, spectro- collects, they all must be ready for
before Syrtis’s first eruptions. The which reached the planet in 2012 to scopes and drilling equipment at the eventual pickup by a tag-team
site “is bookended by these major perform still ongoing investigations end of its two-meter-long robotic duo—a Sample Retrieval Lander and
planetary events.... We see their of its habitability. None, however, arm. Wallace and others have an Earth Return Orbiter—that could
influence in the rocks around came anywhere close to doing what compared this rugged assemblage launch later this decade. Working
Jezero,” said Katy Stack Morgan, many earthbound experts believe to to a miniaturized chemistry lab and together like partners in a relay race,
Perseverance’s deputy project scien- be the most crucial step in Mars clean room mounted on a jackham- they could bring the baton—perhaps
tist at JPL. At Jezero, she said, “we exploration: Bringing modest, mer, all operating near the limits of a half kilogram of precious speci-
have this window into early solar pristine pieces of the planet back to technological tolerance for the dust, mens—across the terra firma finish
system evolution and the period of Earth, where researchers can study radiation and wild swings in tem- line as early as 2031.
time when life was emerging on them for signs of biology using perature that define the Martian “The science that Perseverance
Earth and might have been emerg- laboratory equipment that cannot fit surface environment. Mission will do is going to inform our world
ing on Mars as well.” into any conceivable rover. scientists will use the turret to for decades,” Braun said. “There are
“In my view, sample return from identify and retrieve material of scientists in schools today and
SAMPLING ON THE Mars is the planetary science endeav- astrobiological interest, filling up to perhaps not even born yet who will
SHOULDERS OF GIANTS or of our generation,” said Bobby 43 test tube–like containers that will benefit from what’s about to hap-
Of the nearly 50 spacecraft that Braun, director of planetary science at then be cached for later pickup by pen.... Perseverance is the first step
have been sent to Mars since the JPL. “It’s the ambitious, challenging, subsequent follow-up missions now that initiates the sample-return
1960s, to date only five—all from scientifically compelling goal that—if in development. campaign, but already in the U.S.
nasa, including Perseverance—have we work together over timescales of According to Stack Morgan, she and across Europe we’re working on
successfully traveled across the decades—is just within our reach.” and her colleagues are tentatively the next two missions.”
surface (China’s Tianwen-1 lander, Unlike all its predecessors, targeting several regions for priori- —Lee Billings

6
 NEWS

The First 100 Days on

Mars: How NASA’s
Perseverance Rover
Will Begin Its
Mission
The space agency’s
latest rover set down on
February 18, 2021. Here is the
agenda for its initial months

On a space mission, timing is every-

thing. An intricate choreography of
commands and actions is required to
make any such mission a success
and none more so than an escapade
on the surface of another world. On
February 18, nasa was set for
another delicate dance of inter­­­-
planetary chronology when its
Perseverance rover touched down on
Mars—the successor to its aestheti-
cally identical sibling, Curiosity, which
landed in 2012. This time around, the
mission is conducting a search for
past life on Mars, alongside other

NASA AND JPL-CALTECH

exciting experiments.
The 1,025-kilogram rover is This is the first high-resolution, color
image to be sent back by the Hazard
powered by a radioisotope thermo- Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside
electric generator, fueled by heat of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover
after its landing on February 18, 2021.
from decaying plutonium, which

7
 NEWS

should help it avoid a dust-laden fate minutes longer than a day on Earth.) cations and then run through checks require Perseverance to find a flat
such as prematurely ended the Here is how it is all set to play out. of its instruments and systems—while location, somewhere picked by the
missions of its solar-powered prede- continuing to beam back images of helicopter team within a 10-day
cessors Opportunity and Spirit; ho­­w- DAYS 1 TO 10 its surroundings, too. drive of the landing site, Trosper
ever, getting up and running as soon The very first thing Perseverance “It’ll take us about four or five days says, or up to one kilometer away—
as possible after the landing is still will do after landing is to fire some to get all that done,” Trosper says. with the rover able to travel about
crucial. The rover has an ambitious pyro­­technic devices, releasing the The next five days, meanwhile, will 100 meters a day.
amount of science to conduct in its covers on cameras onboard the rover. be spent transitioning from the Once it finds that site, the deploy-
primary mission lasting one Martian It will then take images in front and software the rover used to land to ment will be slow. Ingenuity is stored
year (two Earth years). And although behind the rover and send those the software it needs to operate on sideways under Perseverance, so it
its mission is likely to be extended, back to Earth via nasa’s orbiting the surface. The rover will then test must be slowly rotated and lowered
given the overwhelming richness of Mars Odyssey spacecraft and out its robotic arm, which will be to the surface. The legs must be
its landing site in the ancient Martian Europe’s Trace Gas Orbiter. After used to collect and store samples on unfolded with the help of springs,
river delta within Jezero Crater, that? A quick nap, of course, “to the surface, and will also take its while the helicopter must receive a
scientists are eager to get the ball recharge the batteries until the next very first “steps,” performing a short final jolt of charge from Perseverance
rolling sooner rather than later. day on Mars,” says Jennifer Trosper, drive on its six rugged wheels. While before it switches to its own onboard
Before they could get down to that deputy project manager for the all this is going on, however, another solar-powered battery. Then, once all
urgent business, however, Persever- mission at nasa’s Jet Propulsion team will be poring through images checks have been complete and
ance first needed to endure its Laboratory (JPL). of the landing site, getting ready for everything is ready, it will be gently
autonomous seven-minute descent to Over the first few days, Persever- a major test—the first flight on Mars. dropped to the surface. In theory, this
the surface—known as the “seven ance will go through a number of whole process—apart from the
minutes of terror”—and then to check important tasks to ensure it is up and DAYS 11 TO 60 battery charge—takes just minutes.
that its vital organs were in working running smoothly. It will confirm its Tucked into the belly of Persever- But the engineers will progress
order as well as launch a first-of-its exact location on Mars, while the team ance is a small 0.5-meter-tall extremely carefully, taking multiple
kind attempt at aerial flight. will “try to establish the vehicle’s base stowaway called Ingenuity. This pictures along the way, meaning the
Suffice to say, the busy rover’s functions—power, thermal, and “Mars helicopter,” with four spinning entire deployment will actually be
schedule is positively jam-packed. communications,” Trosper says. blades, will attempt powered aerody- “in the range of a Mars week,” says
Interplanetary mission timings are “Because if any of those base func- namic flight through the skies of Joshua Ravich, the helicopter’s
always subject to change depending tions aren’t working, then the vehicle another world for the first time, a mechanical engineering lead at JPL.
on how things progress, of course, can be in [danger] very quickly.” technological demonstration that From here, the helicopter’s mission
but a time line is in place for Perse- It will also use the sun’s overhead could be a prelude to flying recon- begins. It has a 30-day window to
verance’s first 100 days on Mars. position to figure out where exactly naissance drones on future human conduct up to five autonomous flights
(Note: a day on Mars is about 40 Earth is in the sky for direct communi- missions. Ingenuity’s flights will on Mars, each lasting up to 90

8
 NEWS This photograph was selected by public vote
and featured as “Image of the Week” for week 4
(March 7–13, 2021) of the Perseverance rover
mission on Mars. NASA's Mars Perseverance rover
acquired this image using its onboard Right
Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located
seconds. The flights will begin low high on the rover's mast and aids in driving.
and short but should eventually
progress to higher altitudes and
distances of potentially a few hun-
dred meters. “Flight number five
could be something as complex as
liftoff, fly some distance, pick a new
landing site by itself and land at this
site,” Ravich says. Only one flight can
be attempted per day at most, with
the helicopter charging in between.
Watching will be Perseverance,
taking images and possibly even
video of the flights.

DAYS 60 TO 100
There is some margin for error in
these early activities, with day 60
being the earliest and day 100 the
latest they might finish. Either way,
the conclusion of the helicopter test
flights—five flights or 30 days,
whichever comes first—will mean
the initial phase of the mission is
over. Now the move toward the
rover’s primary science objectives The science team will have picked floor before our investigation of the ance will potentially scoop its first
will begin. “The engineers turn the a first site to send the rover to in [river] delta, because it might be a samples on Mars and leave its first
keys of the rover over to the science the mission’s initial weeks on Mars. volcanic rock, and volcanic rocks are cigar-sized tube on the surface—small

NASA AND JPL-CALTECH

team,” says Katie Stack Morgan, “Depending on where we land, we really good for getting absolute age caches designed to be picked up by a
deputy project scientist on Persever- have a menu [of sites] to choose dates from,” giving a useful temporal future sample-return mission, to be
ance. “Once the helicopter is done, from,” Morgan says. “What I anticipate baseline for any future samples brought back to Earth. Its MOXIE
many of our science instruments will we might be looking at is planning a collected by the rover. instrument, a technology demonstra-
be ready to go.” science investigation on the crater In the days thereafter, Persever- tor that will pluck carbon dioxide from

9
 NEWS

the Martian atmosphere for chemical

transformation into breathable Galaxy-Size
oxygen, will likely be up and running,
as will MEDA—a Martian weather
Gravitational-Wave
instrument—and RIMFAX, which will Detector Hints
use radar to look for water ice at Exotic Physics
underground. Recent results from a pulsar ti-
It is a mission that will begin unlike ming array, which uses dead stars
any other, given the helicopter to hunt for gravitational waves, has
dem­onstration in its early phase. scientists speculating about cosmic
But once that is done, and the rover strings and primordial black holes
has gone through its checks to
confirm it is properly functioning, its
primary mission on Mars will be truly The fabric of spacetime may be
underway. After its first 100 days frothing with gigantic gravitational
on Mars, possibly sometime in June, waves, and the possibility has sent
the rover will be ready to conduct one physicists into a tizzy. A potential signal
of the most exciting searches for life seen in the light from dead stellar
on Mars to date. At this point it’s “full cores known as pulsars has driven a
steam ahead,” Trosper says—and who flurry of theoretical papers speculating
knows what secrets might lie in store? about exotic explanations.
—Jonathan O'Callaghan The most mundane, yet still quite
Editor's Note: In the month since it sensational, possibility is that
landed, Perseverance has already researchers working with the North
beamed back nearly 13,000 American Nanohertz Observatory for
pictures, conducted its first drive, Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav),
recorded the sounds of Martian which uses the galaxy as a colossal Representative illustration of Earth embedded in spacetime is deformed by the background
gravitational waves and its effects on radio signals coming from observed pulsars.
winds, zapped nearby rocks with gravitational-wave detector, have
lasers, and prepped Ingenuity for finally seen a long-sought back-

TONIA KLEIN NANOGRAV

flight. Even so, the mission's ground signature produced when originating from a vibrating network the fundamental constituents of
defining moment—its inaugural supermassive black holes crash and of high-energy cosmic strings that physical reality. A third possibility
collection of samples for return to merge throughout the universe. could provide scientists with ex- posits that the collaboration has
Earth—is yet to come. Another interpretation would have it tremely detailed information about spotted the creation of countless

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 NEWS

small black holes at the dawn of black holes lurking in the centers of “If we detected cosmic strings,
time, which could themselves galaxies collide, are what the NANO- it would be the detection of my lifetime.
account for the mysterious sub- Grav collaboration has been working
stance known as dark matter. to capture. It would be more important than the
“People have been making predic- It does so by focusing on objects Higgs boson, probably more than
tions about cosmic strings and known as millisecond pulsars, which gravitational waves themselves.”
primordial black holes for years, and arise when massive stars explode —Eugene Lim
now, finally, we have a signal,” says as supernovae and leave behind
Chiara Mingarelli, an astrophysicist their rapidly spinning remnant
at the University of Connecticut and hearts. A pulsar’s strong magnetic monitored pulsars all displayed possible culprit was cosmic strings,
a member of the NANOGrav team. field can create a beam of radiation similar blips. (The paper has since and he began running models to see
“We’re not sure what is generating that swings around, repeatedly been peer-reviewed and published.) if this option could account for the
this signal, but a lot of people are sweeping past Earth with a regulari- The chances of this happening are data. “By Saturday, it was pretty clear
really, really excited.” ty that rivals the accuracy of atomic between 1,000 and 10,000 to one, it was a good fit,” he says.
The physics community has clocks. Should a distortion in the Mingarelli says. As a group, NANO- Researchers like cosmic strings
learned a great deal about the fabric of spacetime come between Grav is cautious and has refrained because they directly connect cosmo-
universe from massive terrestrial our planet and a pulsar, it can cause from claiming it has seen a gravita- logical events to high-energy particle
gravitational-wave experiments such this signal to arrive slightly earlier tional-wave signal, which requires physics. Shortly after the big bang,
as the Laser Interferometer Gravita- or later than expected. Were a observing highly specific correlations three of the four known forces—elec-
tional-wave Observatory (LIGO) and telescope to see one such offset, among its pulsar signals’ arrival tromagnetism and the strong and
its European counterpart Virgo. But it probably would not mean much. times. That did not stop other weak nuclear forces—would have
just as electromagnetic waves come But NANOGrav has been monitoring scientists from jumping on the data. been smushed together into one
in a spectrum ranging from squashed the light from 45 pulsars scattered Marek Lewicki, a theoretical superforce. When the strong nuclear
gamma rays to lengthy radio waves, over thousands of light-years for physicist at the University of Warsaw force dissociated itself, the universe
gravitational waves run the gamut more than 12.5 years, looking for in Poland, recalls that the NANOGrav would have gone through what is
from the tiny vibrations in spacetime correlations between their arrival study appeared early on a Friday known as a phase change, much like
made when sun-size black holes times that could indicate the pres- morning and that by 10 a.m., his water freezing into ice. And just as a
merge to those with wavelengths ence of gravitational waves. collaborator John Ellis of King’s frozen lake often contains long cracks
measurable in light-years that can Last September the collaboration College London had spotted it. created when its bulk solidifies, the
take decades to pass by our planet. posted a paper on the preprint Although the usual explanation for visible cosmos would become strewn
The collective, overlapping cacopho- server arXiv.org, which hosts scien- such a signal is the supermassive with enormous nearly one-dimension-
nies from those larger waves, thought tific articles that have yet to go black hole gravitational-wave back- al tubes of energy crisscrossing its
to be produced when behemoth through peer review, showing that its ground, Lewicki knew that another length. Such objects would be tense

11
 NEWS

like piano strings and could vibrate out “It would be more important than the planted the idea in many research- Madrid, who was not involved in the
gravitational waves that would look like Higgs boson, probably more than ers’ minds that these strange objects work. While the NANOGrav data
the signal NANOGrav had picked up. gravitational waves themselves.” are more than speculative fictions. contain hints, it does not quite show
Because these cosmic strings For this reason, Lim, who was not Certain theorists like them because the specific correlated pattern that
originated near the beginning of a co-author on either paper, stresses as entities that give off no light, they would indicate gravitational waves,
time, they would carry information that such concepts need to be could account for some or even all and much of the speculation seems
about processes such as cosmic considered with an abundance of of the dark matter in the universe. premature to him. “I’m the first to
inflation, during which the universe is restraint. The NANOGrav collabora- “This is an economical explana- hope for primordial black holes,” he
thought to have rapidly ballooned by tion still needs to confirm that it is in tion,” says Antonio Riotto, an astro­ says. “But I’m afraid it’s not yet there.”
mind-boggling factors, as well as the fact seeing gravitational waves. And particle cosmologist at the University Nevertheless, the burst of theoreti-
creation of different particles at the shape of those gravitational of Geneva, because they do not cal activity shows how seriously
different extreme temperatures, says waves’ spectrum has yet to be traced require theorizing about exotic physicists are taking these results.
Kai Schmitz, a theoretical physicist out and found to conform to the undetected particles such as WIMPs NANOGrav researchers have another
at CERN near Geneva. Information cosmic string interpretation, each of or axions, which have thus far two and a half years of pulsar data
from such conditions, which would which is likely to take years, he adds. dominated physicists’ musings about they are combing through, which
be impossible to create in particle Meanwhile another contingent of dark matter. could help distinguish whether some
accelerators such as the Large the physics community has suggest- Along with two co-authors, Riotto or a combination of all these explana-
Hadron Collider, could help re- ed that the signal could originate has written a third paper appearing tions might be viable. They are also
searchers produce a grand unified from entities known as primordial in PRL showing how the NANOGrav working with international collabora-
theory connecting most known black holes. Unlike regular black signal could be accounted for by a tors such as the European Pulsar
particles and forces that would holes, which are born when gigantic multitude of black holes the size of Timing Array (EPTA) and Parkes
supersede the current Standard stars die, these would form in the asteroids being created shortly after Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) in
Model. Along with two collaborators, early universe, when matter and the big bang, producing a gravita- Australia, each of which has observa-
Schmitz published a paper in energy were nonuniformly scattered tional-wave relic that would travel tions of other pulsars that could get
Physical Review Letters (PRL) through the cosmos as a conse- to us in the modern day. According them closer to spotting the needed
outlining how cosmic strings could quence of processes that occurred to the researchers’ model, these correlations to finally pin down the
account for the NANOGrav data on at the end of inflation. Certain miniature primordial black holes gravitational-wave background—a
January 28, the same day a similar overdense areas could collapse could make up to 100 percent of process that should be underway
article by Lewicki and Ellis appeared. under their own weight, generating the dark matter in the universe. before the end of this year.
“If we detected cosmic strings, black holes in a variety of sizes. Yet this possibility, too, needs to “I would be shocked if we didn’t
it would be the detection of my Observations from LIGO and Virgo be approached carefully, says Juan see a signal when we combined all
life­time,” says Eugene Lim, a cosmol- that could indicate mergers between García-Bellido, a theoretical physicist of our data,” Mingarelli says. ­
ogist also at King’s College London. primordial black holes have already at the Autonomous University of —Adam Mann

12
 NEWS

Is It a Planet?
Astronomers Spy
Promising Potential
World around
Alpha Centauri
The candidate could be a “warm
Neptune” or a mirage. Either way,
it signals the dawn of a revolution
in astronomy

For the first time ever, astronomers

may have glimpsed light from a
world in a life-friendly orbit around
another star.
The planet candidate remains
unverified and formally unnamed,
little more than a small clump of
pixels on a computer screen, a
potential signal surfacing from a sea
of background noise. If proved Alpha Centauri, our
nearest neighboring star
genuine, the newly reported find system, rises above a unit
would in most respects not be of the European Southern
Observatory’s Very Large
particularly remarkable: a “warm Telescope at the Paranal
Neptune” estimated to be five to Observatory in Chile.
seven times larger than Earth, the

Y. BELETSKY ( LCO)/ ESO

sort of world that galactic census
takers such as nasa’s Kepler and But even though it would be shroud- so-called habitable zone, where any other star because of the
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite ed in gas and essentially bereft of liquid water could exist. No other associated glare. And this world’s
missions have revealed to be any surface to stand on, its distance planet has been directly seen in this celestial coordinates would be
common throughout the Milky Way. from its star would place it in the starlight-drenched region around straight out of astronomers’ wildest

13
 NEWS

dreams—it would orbit a near twin of views of our place in the universe. mental noise. It happened while he
ESO’s billions of dollars invested in its
the sun called Alpha Centauri A, The findings were reported in telescopes. But it’s also like going was remotely processing a batch of
which also happens to be a member February in the journal Nature after a needle in a haystack, which is data during a family vacation in Lake
of a triple-star system that, at just Communications. They come from why no one has ever done this be­­- Jocassee, S.C. Measuring its
shy of 4.5 light-years away, is the an international consortium of planet fore. Governments tend to build brightness and sandwiching it
closest one to our own. hunters called Breakthrough Watch, survey instruments, to look at large between limits on planet masses
Because of its proximity, the via the inaugural science run of a numbers of stars and guarantee a and sizes calculated in previous
system’s other members—a slightly one-of-a-kind “direct imaging” instru- return on investment, whereas NEAR studies by other groups, the Break-
smaller sunlike star called Alpha ment called NEAR (New Earths in was purpose-built to just do this one, through Watch team estimated
Centauri B, and the diminutive red the AlphaCen Region), which risky thing.” that—if the blip were indeed a
dwarf star Proxima Centauri—are also operates on the European Southern “When we collaborate on a global planet—it would most likely be
high-priority targets for astronomers, Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large scale, we discover new worlds, and somewhere between Neptune and
who have already indirectly detected Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The effort we keep advancing,” Milner says. Saturn in size. By November he and
the presence of two worlds around is named for its chief funding “The identification of a candidate his colleagues were certain the find
Proxima (including one that is likely organization, Breakthrough Initia- habitable-zone planet in our celestial was worth publishing, even if it
rocky and within that star’s habitable tives—the brainchild of Silicon Valley backyard will continue to power our proved not to be a world at all. (It
zone). Whether looking for real estate billionaire Yuri Milner, who also curiosity.” would not be the first time our
across town or around another star, sponsors related projects to search neighboring star system has fooled
location really is everything. the heavens for signs of alien THE BLIP astronomers. Peer-reviewed claims
The Centauri system is so close civilizations and to send pint-sized The candidate’s tantalizing signal of a small planet around Alpha
that it offers a unique front-row seat interstellar probes to the Alpha emerged from 100 hours of obser- Centauri B in 2012 evaporated a
for scientists seeking to study the Centauri system. vations on the VLT, stretched across few years later, found to be products
at­­­mospheres and surfaces of any “Alpha Centauri presents us with a a total of 10 nights in the spring of of stellar noise.)
worlds that exist there, especially magical opportunity because there is 2019. By June of that year, as the “In a way, I hope that we haven’t
to seek out possible signs of life. no better place in the sky to try to Breakthrough Watch team members detected anything this time, too,”
And astronomers long ago learned directly image small, potentially sifted through their observations, Wagner says. “Because what I’m
that planets are, in some respects, habitable planets,” says study co-au- they began to realize they might most excited to find is an Earth-like
like household pests: where one is thor Pete Klupar, Breakthrough Initia­­- have found something. Kevin planet in the habitable zone. The
seen, others are likely to be found. tives’ chief engineer. “This was in Wagner, the study’s lead author and presence of a Neptune in the
Which is why, as tentative as they some sense low-hanging fruit—for a postdoctoral Sagan Fellow at the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri A
may be, the burgeoning crop of just $3 million, we were with our University of Arizona, first saw the would not rule out something
Centauri worlds hints at discoveries international partners able to build an telltale evidence of a planetlike blip smaller nearby, but it would limit
that could profoundly transform instrument to take advantage of cresting far above NEAR’s instru- some of the area in which we

14
 NEWS

could hope for rocky worlds to exist faint planetary light to accumulate Wagner says the team has applied an counterpart, ESPRESSO, are both
there in the first place.” and eventually be seen. But rather for additional time to use NEAR on already operational. They could help
There is no shortage of other than betraying the presence of a the VLT, but the proposal has yet to indirectly confirm the planet candi-
possible explanations for the weak planet, any resulting blip could be approved. date and others and could estimate
signal, which is essentially a thermal instead be a far-distant background “The timing is such a shame,” says their masses by watching for periodic
wisp of infrared photons—that is, of object, a clump of starlight-warmed Debra Fischer, a veteran planet wobbles each world’s orbital tugging
heat—that seems to originate from dust or an asteroid belt circling hunter at Yale University. She is induces on its host star. A related
a source at the outer edge of Alpha around a star, or even the errant play unaffiliated with the study, but her technique, astrometry, could do much
Centauri A’s habitable zone. In visible of stray photons leaking from beam- work with her student Lily Zhao has the same thing, pinpointing planetary
light, a sunlike star outshines a small, lines and spraying across sensitive placed the best-yet constraints on masses by measuring how each
rocky planet by a factor of billions. optics inside the instrument. Wagner the planets that may or may not exist world’s gravitational influence slightly
But in infrared, the star is dimmer and and his co-authors have already ruled in the Alpha Centauri system. “If it’s shifts its star’s position in the plane of
the planet is at its brightest, so this out the first possibility (no known in the habitable zone around Alpha the sky. Such observations using the
contrast ratio is “only” measured in background star or galaxy can Centauri A, that’s an Earth-like orbit,Atacama Large Millimeter Array in
millions. For decades the difficulty of account for the blip), but the others so observing six months later would Chile or even a modest, Break-
achieving even this more modest remain in play to various degrees. probably have nailed it,” Fischer says.through-funded dedicated space
measurement limited direct imaging Confirmation of the blip’s plane- “Without that, this isn’t a planet- mission could occur later
to hot giant planets orbiting far from tary status should have been detection paper; it’s a demonstration this decade.
their stars. That is, until NEAR was relatively straightforward: simply of NEAR’s capability to monitor nasa’s James Webb Space
built. It is a midinfrared coronagraph, attempt to observe it again after Alpha Centauri in the midinfrared. Telescope, slated to launch in late
a specialized instrument designed to sufficient time has passed; if it is in But if this turns out to be right—oh, October, would also be capable of
blot out the bulk of a star’s thermal fact a planet, its orbital motion will my God, it’s huge.” directly imaging the candidate planet
glow at a tight wavelength of 10 have swept it to a new and very given one full day of observing time,
microns. Augmented by adaptive different position around its star. BRAVE NEW WORLDS according to a recent study led by
optics to compensate for the blurring Subsequent, more time-intensive For now NEAR is the only corona- one of Webb’s foremost scientists,
turbulence of Earth’s atmosphere, studies with NEAR could then graph on Earth with a realistic chance Charles Beichman of the California
in operation it switches its focus crudely measure the blip’s colors to of imaging Alpha Centauri’s hidden Institute of Technology. “Because
between Alpha Centauri A and B help eliminate the “dust cloud” worlds. But other instruments and Alpha Centauri A is a twin of our
every tenth of a second, using hypothesis. But this was not to facilities are already waiting in the own sun and less than five light-
observations of each star to help be—not yet, anyway—as the ensuing wings to apply their own scrutiny to years away, it really is our closest
calibrate those of the other. It pro- COVID pandemic shut down astro- the system. Fischer’s high-precision solar neighbor,” Beichman says.
gressively winnows out starlight and nomical observatories and most EXPRES radial velocity spectrograph “That makes it first among equals of
stacks frame after frame to allow any everything else around the globe. and an even more advanced Europe- all the stars in the sky. No other

15
 NEWS

system will lend itself to more Hemisphere from which Alpha the nuclei that split were
detailed possible studies over the Centauri would not be visible.) Finally, Mystery of Spinning not spinning themselves. Just as
next several decades.” nasa and other space agencies are you would not expect an object to
The space agency’s follow-up mis- now studying concepts for multibil-
Atomic Fragments start moving on its own without
sion to Webb, the Nancy Grace lion-dollar space telescopes for the Solved at Last some force acting on it, a body
Roman Space Telescope, will also 2030s and beyond. Some of these New experiments have answered the beginning to spin in absence of
carry a coronagraph as a technology could image and search for signs of decades-old question of how pieces an initiating torque would seem
demonstration that could (with life on small rocky planets around of splitting nuclei get their spins decidedly supernatural, in apparent
certain tweaks now being actively Alpha Centauri as well as many other violation of the law of conservation
considered) potentially snap pictures nearby stars. of angular momentum.
of the candidate. All of which means that, even if For over 40 years, a subatomic mys­­- This “makes it look like something
And, around the same time Roman this latest candidate from Alpha tery has puzzled scientists: Why do the was created from nothing,” says
may launch, a new generation of Centauri proves spurious, it still fragments of splitting atomic nuclei study lead author Jonathan Wilson,
sophisticated coronagraphs mated to signals something quite real: a emerge spinning from the wreckage? a nuclear physicist at Université
gargantuan ground-based observato- looming sea change, in which Now researchers find these perplexing Paris-Saclay's Irene Joliot-Curie
ries should begin operations that planet-hunting astronomers shift gyrations might be explained by an Laboratory in Orsay, France. “Nature
could in mere minutes produce from safe, statistical surveys to the effect akin to what happens when you pulls a conjuring trick on us. We start
images of Centauri planets that more daring in-depth study of snap a rubber band. with an object with no spin, and after
would currently require hours on individual worlds, some of which To get an idea why this whirling is splitting apart, both chunks are
hours of NEAR’s time on the VLT. might harbor life. baffling, imagine you have a tall stack spinning. But, of course, angular
Armed with starlight-gathering “Whether this thing is real is, to of coins. It would be unsurprising if momentum must still be conserved.”
mirrors 30 meters or more across, me, almost secondary,” says study this unstable tower fell. But after this Previous research found that fission
ESO’s European Extremely Large co-author Olivier Guyon, an innova- stack collapsed, you likely would not begins when the shape of a nucleus
Telescope and its American counter- tor in direct imaging and chair of expect all the coins to begin spinning becomes unstable as a consequence
part, the Giant Magellan Telescope, Breakthrough Watch. “Because as they hit the floor. of jostling between the protons;
could both in theory gather enough either way, it shows we’re clearly Much like a tall stack of coins, because they are positively charged,
light from a habitable-zone Neptune opening a new era in the history of atomic nuclei rich in protons and they naturally repel each other. As the
around Alpha Centauri A to study its astronomy where, finally, after more neutrons are unstable. Instead of nucleus elongates, the nascent
atmosphere, sniffing out what than 20 years of hard work, we can collapsing, such heavy nuclei are fragments form a neck between them.
familiar or alien chemistry occurs at last perform direct imaging of prone to splitting, a reaction known When the nucleus ultimately disinte-
there. (A third behemoth, the U.S.’s another star’s habitable zone. This is as nuclear fission. The resulting grates, these pieces move apart
Thirty Meter Telescope, is currently the ‘game on’ moment for the field.” shards come out spinning, which can rapidly, and the neck snaps quickly,
planned for a site in the Northern —Lee Billings prove especially bewildering when a process known as scission.

16
 NEWS

Over the decades scientists have “Even though fission

devised a dozen or so different was discovered
theories for this spinning, Wilson
says. One class of explanations 80 years ago, it’s so
suggests the spin arises before complex that we're
scission given the bending, wriggling, still seeing interesting
tilting and twisting of the particles results today.”
making up the nucleus before the
—Jonathan Wilson
split, motions resulting from thermal
excitations or quantum fluctuations,
or both. Another set of ideas posits
that the spin occurs after scission
consequent to forces such as
repulsion between the protons in the
fragments. Yet “the results of the
experiments looking into this all
contradicted each other,” Wilson says.
Now Wilson and his colleagues
have conclusively determined that
this spinning results after the split,
findings they detailed online Febru-
ary 24 in Nature. “This is wonderful
new data,” says nuclear physicist
George Bertsch of the University of
Washington, who did not participate
in this study. “It’s really an important
advance in our understanding of
nuclear fission.” on the gamma rays released after fragments to have equal and opposite examined batches of nuclei regard-
In the new study, the scientists nuclear fission, which encoded spins. But “this is not what we less of the respective isotopes.
examined nuclei resulting from the information on the spin of the observe,” Wilson says. Instead it The researchers suspect that when

GETTY IMAGES
fission of various unstable elemental resulting fragments. appears that each fragment spins in a nucleus lengthens and splits, its
isotopes: thorium 232, uranium 238 If the spinning resulted from effects a manner independent of its partner, remnants start off somewhat resem-
and californium 252. They focused before scission, one would expect the a result that held true across all bling teardrops. These fragments

17
 NEWS

each possess a quality akin to surface gyrations was because they did not “Even though fission Wilson says. “Our findings are just a
tension that drives them to reduce have the benefit of modern, ultra- was discovered part of the full picture one would want
their surface area by adopting more high-resolution detectors and in simulating future reactors, but a full
stable spherical shapes, much as contemporary, computationally 80 years ago, it’s so picture is necessary.”
bubbles do, Wilson explains. The intensive data-analysis methods. complex that we’re These studies of subatomic
release of this energy causes the Previous work also often focused still seeing interesting angular momentum could also help
remnants to heat and spin, a bit like more on exploring the exotic struc- results today.” scientists figure out which super-
how stretching a rubber band to the tures of “extreme” superheavy heavy elements and other exotic
—Jonathan Wilson
point of snapping leads to a chaotic, neutron-rich nuclei to see how atomic nuclei they can synthesize to
elastic flailing of fragments. standard nuclear theory could shed more light on the still murky
Wilson adds this scenario is account for such distinctly unusual depths of nuclear structure. “About
complicated by the fact that each cases. Much of that prior work an Commission’s Joint Research 7,000 nuclei can theoretically exist,
chunk of nuclear debris is not simply deliberately avoided collecting and Center facility in Geel, Belgium, he but only 4,000 of those can be
a uniform piece of rubber but rather analyzing the huge amount of extra adds, have now also confirmed the accessed in the laboratory,” Wilson
resembles a bag of buzzing bees, data needed to investigate how the observations with a different tech- says. “Understanding more about
given how its particles are all moving nuclear fragments spun, whereas this nique. Those independent results how spin gets gen­erated in fission
and often colliding with one another. new study explicitly focused on should be published soon. fragments can help us understand
“They’re like two miniature swarms analyzing such details, he explains. These findings may not only solve what nuclear states we can access.”
that part ways and start doing their “For me, the most surprising thing a decades-long mystery but could Future research, for instance, could
own things,” he says. about the measurement is that it help scientists design better nuclear explore what might happen when
All in all, “these findings give big could be done at all with such clear reactors in the future. Specifically, nuclei are driven to fission when
support to the idea that the shapes results,” Bertsch says. they could help shed light on the bombarded by light or charged
of nuclei at the point at which they’re Wilson cautions more work is nature of the gamma rays emitted by particles. In such cases, Wilson says,
coming apart is what determines their needed to explain how exactly spin spinning nuclear fragments during the incoming energy could lead to
energy and the properties of the results after scission. “Our theory is fission, which can heat reactor cores prescission influences on the
fragments,” Bertsch says. “This is simplistic, for sure,” he notes. “It can and surrounding materials. Currently spinning of the resulting fragments.
important for directing the theory of explain about 85 percent of the these heating effects are not fully “Even though fission was discov-
fission to be more predictive and variations we see in spin as a function understood, particularly how they ered 80 years ago, it’s so complex
allows us to more confidently discuss of mass, but a more sophisticated vary between different types of that we're still seeing interesting
how it can make elements.” theory could be able to make more nuclear-power systems. results today,” Wilson says. “The story
One reason Wilson suggests accurate predictions. It’s a starting “There’s up to a 30 percent discrep- of fission is not complete—there are
previous analyses of fissioning atoms point; we're not claiming anything ancy between the models and the ac­­- more experiments to do, for sure.”
did not deduce the origins of these more.” Other scientists at the Europe- tual data about these heating effects,” —Charles Q. Choi

18
 NEWS

Quantum Network
Is Step toward
Ultrasecure Internet
Experiment connects three
devices with entangled photons,
demonstrating a key technique
that could enable a future
quantum Internet

Physicists have taken a major step

toward a future quantum version
of the Internet by linking three
quantum devices in a network.
A quantum Internet would enable
ultrasecure communications and
unlock scientific applications such
as new types of sensor for gravita-
tional waves and telescopes with
unprecedented resolution. The
results were reported on February 8
on the arXiv preprint repository.
“It’s a big step forward,” says
Rodney Van Meter, a quantum-net-
work engineer at Keio University in
Tokyo. Although the network doesn’t
yet have the performance needed for
practical applications, Van Meter adds,
it demonstrates a key technique that

FRANK AUPERLE
An experiment at Delft University
of Technology in the Netherlands
will enable a quantum Internet to links diamond-based devices
connect nodes over long distances. through quantum entanglement.
Quantum communications exploit

19
 NEWS

phenomena that are unique to the

quantum realm—such as the ability
Quantum Network
of elementary particles or atoms to Physicists have created a network that links three quantum devices using the phenomenon
of entanglement. Each device holds one qubit of quantum information and can be entangled
exist in a superposition of multiple
with the other two. Such a network could be the basis of a future quantum internet.
simultaneous states or to share an
entangled state with other particles. Bob can store his entanglement
Bob
Researchers had demonstrated the with Alice in a “memory qubit”
principles of a three-node quantum while his other qubit establishes
Communication qubit entanglement with Charlie.
network before, but the latest
approach could more readily lead
to practical applications. Charlie

ENTANGLED WEB 2m 30
At the heart of quantum communi- m
cations is information stored in
qubits—the quantum equivalent of Long-distance
the bits in ordinary computers— entanglement
which can be programmed to be in Lab 1
a superposition of a 0 and a 1. The A photon is funneled through
main purpose of a quantum network an optical fiber and delivered
is to enable qubits on a user’s device to another device to establish
to be entangled with those on an entanglement.
someone else’s. That entanglement Alice
has many potential uses, starting
Lab 2
with encryption: because measure-
ments on entangled objects are
always correlated, by repeatedly
reading the states of their qubits,
the users can generate a secret Netherlands and his collaborators three devices in a three-way entan- quantum information in a synthetic
code that only they know. linked three devices in such a way gled state, which, among other diamond crystal—more precisely, in
In the latest demonstration, that any two devices in the network applications, can enable three users the quantum states of a defect in
physicist Ronald Hanson of the Delft ended up with mutually entangled to share secret information. the crystal, where a nitrogen atom

NATURE
University of Technology in the qubits. They also put qubits at all Each of the Delft devices stores replaces one of the carbons.

20
 NEWS

In such a diamond device, re- electron, they were able to nudge the This and other challenges made qubits are more limited in what they
searchers can prod the nitrogen carbon nucleus into specific quantum the experiment more difficult than a can do, so it could be very difficult
qubit to emit a photon, which will be states, turning it into an additional two-node network, says Tracy for the Hefei team to do entangle-
automatically entangled to the qubit. Such carbon quantum memo- Northup, a physicist at the Universityment swapping—although perhaps
atom’s state. They can then funnel ries can keep their quantum states for of Innsbruck in Austria. “Once you not impossible. “I would never say
the photon into an optical fiber and one minute or more—which in the seriously try to link three, it gets never with the Pan group.”
deliver it to another device, helping subatomic world is an eternity. significantly more complicated.” Mikhail Lukin, a physicist at
to establish entanglement between The carbon memory enabled the Storing information in a node Harvard University, calls the Delft
remote qubits. In a tour-de-force researchers to set up their three- enabled the team to demonstrate experiment “heroic” but adds that its
experiment in 2015, the Delft team device network in stages. First, they a technique called entanglement performance is slow, showing that
successfully entangled two dia- entangled one of the end nodes with swapping, which could turn out to be nitrogen defects also have limita-
mond-based devices and used them the nitrogen in the central node. Then as crucial for a future quantum tions. Lukin’s team is working on
to confirm some crucial predictions they stored the nitrogen’s quantum Internet as routers are for the similar experiments in diamond
of quantum mechanics. state in a carbon memory. This freed current one. with silicon defects, which are much
the central nitrogen qubit to become more efficient at interacting with
QUANTUM MEMORY entangled with the qubit at the third MATERIAL CONCERNS photons, he says. Other teams
One of the three devices in the team’s node. As a result, the central device The Delft team is not the first to have built networks with ions
latest experiment—the one in the had one qubit entangled with the first have successfully linked three trapped in an electromagnetic field
middle of the network—was also set node and another simultaneously quantum memories: in 2019 a team or with defects in crystals of ra-
up to store information in a “quantum entangled with the third. led by physicist Pan Jianwei of the re-earth elements, which can
memory,” which can hold data for The technique required years of University of Science and Technolo- interact with infrared photons that
longer than the other qubits and was refinement. The carbon qubit needs gy of China in Hefei did so using a can travel along kilometers of optical
key to setting up the three-way to be sufficiently well insulated from different type of qubit, based on fiber without significant losses.
entanglement. The memory qubit its environment for its quantum clouds of atoms rather than individu- (Optical fibers are poor
used carbon 13, a nonradioactive state to survive while the physicists al atoms in a solid object. But that at carrying the visible-light photons
isotope that makes up around conduct further operations—but experiment could not yet produce emitted by nitrogen defects
1 percent of naturally occurring still be accessible so that it can be entanglement on demand, Northup in diamond.)
carbon. Carbon 13 has an extra programmed. “You want to store says. By detecting photons, the In their paper, Hanson and his
neutron in its nucleus, so it acts like a a quantum state, so it should be Hefei team could only “retroactively co-authors suggest that their
bar magnet. The researchers used an shielded. But it should not be shield- extract the fact that the entangle- techniques will “provide guidance for
active electron in the nitrogen defect ed too much,” Hanson told ment was there,” not that it is still similar platforms reaching the same
as a sensor to locate a nearby carbon a reporter during a visit to his lab available for further use. level of maturity in the future.”
13 nucleus. By manipulating the in 2018. Van Meter says that atomic-cloud —Davide Castelvecchi

➦ 21
Giant
Galaxies
from the
Universe’s
Childhood
Challenge
Cosmic
Origin
Stories

NASA, ESA, HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM AND J. BLAKESLEE

Large galaxies are thought to form gradually,
across billions of years of cosmic time.
So why do astronomers keep finding them
in the youthful early universe?
By Robin George Andrews

Most large elliptical galaxies, such as this

one at the center of a galaxy cluster, take
many billions of years to reach their massive
sizes. But for reasons unknown, some of
these giants manage to bulk up much
earlier in cosmic history.

22
 Robin George Andrews is a volcanologist and
science writer based in London.

R
ecently an international team of astronomers traveled back A LONG TIME AGO
in time to when our universe was just 1.8 billion years old. IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY
They did not go directly, of course, but settled for the next best What has become the widely accepted model of galaxy
formation is largely gleaned from simulations of cosmic
thing: gathering 17 hours’ worth of starlight from a single evolution that reproduce our observations of the local
small patch of the distant cosmos with the Large Binocular universe—the stuff we can see near the Milky Way.
Telescope Observatory atop Mount Graham in southeastern After the big bang, the cosmos expanded and stretched
Arizona. Such clock-rewinding virtual voyages are routine in out fairly evenly in all directions. But, Neeleman says, you
astronomy—­­light’s finite speed ensures that the deeper into space you see, the get “tiny density variations in the fabric of the universe.”
further back in time you gaze. And many observatories around the globe can These variations are home to clumps of dark matter, a
substance that emits little, if any, electromagnetic radia-
gather faint photons from ancient skies. But this particular cosmic jaunt tion. As such, dark matter has yet to be directly detected,
concerned something special—even disturbing: an abnormally hefty elliptical but observations of galaxies indicate that this invisible
galaxy dubbed C1-23152. This egg-shaped aggregation of stars is so outsize that mass produces its own gravitational pull. That means
it defies conventional models of its origins. Simply put, C1-23152 seems to be too that these dark matter clumps attract “ordinary” matter
big to fit the early universe. (the stuff we humans can detect and interact with), most
of which is gas. The gas tumbles into these gravity wells
It is thought that the first galaxies were relatively mass stars per year—were found zipping through the and squashes together to trigger star formation. More
minuscule, clumping together from smaller building universe within two billion years of its birth. matter continues to tumble into these ever expanding
blocks bit by bit and only reaching gargantuan sizes Does this ever increasing number of venerable vast wells—called dark matter “halos” by astronomers—grad-
after billions of years of growth. Boasting an estimated objects threaten to bring down the traditional model of ually forming bigger and bigger structures over the
200 billion solar-mass stars, C1-23152 tips and then over- galaxy formation? “The trick here is: How many do you 13.8-billion-year lifetime of the universe. This process
turns the scales for this scenario. And it is not alone. have?” says Marcel Neeleman, an astronomer at the Max should more or less create the distribution of galaxies we
Over the past decade astronomers have discovered sev- Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, see today, says Paolo Saracco, an astronomer at Italy’s
eral very ancient, very big galactic behemoths. In 2017, who was not involved with the new study. A handful will National Institute for Astrophysics and the lead author of
for example, a pair of extremely large galaxies—one not matter; the universe is big enough that odd things a study reporting the recent observations of C1-23152.
capable of churning out 2,900 solar masses of stars per will crop up every now and then. But if future, increasing- That is why ancient massive galaxies are problematic.
year—were found to exist less than 800 million years ly advanced telescopes manage to find far more of them, “For our current understanding of galaxy formation, we
after the big bang. In 2019 a family of 39 huge galaxies— then perhaps these colossal galaxies from the universe’s sort of built on the galaxies we knew at the time,” says
each a star factory manufacturing perhaps 200 solar- childhood may break our understanding of the cosmos. Coral Wheeler, an astronomer at California State Poly-

23
technic University, Pomona, who was not involved with “When you run a simulation, there’s a trade-off between
the new study. These galaxies did not include the very
old, small or big ones. Looking further back in time with how big of a volume you want to simulate and how much detail
increasingly powerful telescopes began to reveal these you can simulate because of the computer power
apparent outliers. And as the tally of anomalous entities
rose, astronomers started wondering if their models
you have or don’t have.”
needed to expand to make room for them or if those —Ben Forrest
models would buckle and break under the strain.
As reported in the Astrophysical Journal in December
2020, Saracco’s team managed to extract some juicy stars to use. More metals equal more cycles of star forma- how big of a volume you want to simulate and how much
details out of C1-23152. Light from far-distant cosmic tion, and it took present-day massive galaxies many bil- detail you can simulate because of the computer power
regions is stretched by the expanding universe as it trav- lions of years to become metal-rich. C1-23152’s spectrum you have or don’t have,” says Ben Forrest, an astronomer
els to Earth. The more it is stretched, the greater its shift revealed the galaxy to be a veritable metal bonanza back at the University of California, Riverside, and a co-author
toward the longer-wavelength “redder” section of the in its early days, which means it made a lot of stars very of the new study. If these ancient massive galaxies are
electromagnetic spectrum. This “redshift” of C1-23152’s rapidly not long after it first formed. rare, perhaps we are not using big enough boxes to give
starlight indicates that it appeared 12 billion years ago, How rapidly? The spectral features of stars can answer one the chance to pop up. “Maybe some of the simulations
way back in the universe’s youth. The fact that this galaxy that question, too, because they reveal which ones have aren’t really covering enough volume,” he says.
is both ancient and massive alone is problematic enough elements typical of younger or older stars. The youngest Quickly tweaking them to spawn mega galaxies from
for traditional slowly-but-surely models of galaxy forma- stars in C1-23152 are roughly 150 million years old. The the early eras of cosmic time is not easy either. “It takes
tion. But it did not just appear fully formed. Saracco and most ancient are about 600 million years old. That means a long time to rerun them. If you want to change some-
his team’s real breakthrough was to trace C1-23152’s his- the galaxy made some 200 billion solar masses in just half thing, you’ve got to be pretty sure that’s right and that’s
tory of star formation from across the universe. a billion years—a rate of 450 stars per year, more than one what you want to do,” Forrest says.
The key to that breakthrough was seeing the giant gal- per day. The figure is almost 300 times greater than esti- Some of the latest iterations of simulations, with better
axy’s spectrum—a rainbowlike measurement of the various mates of the Milky Way’s current output. If most galaxies data and computing power, do predict these massive gal-
wavelengths, or colors, that an object emits or absorbs. Par- are slow-burning log fires, with new flames popping up axies to exist in small numbers at early times, he adds. But
ticular color combinations distinguish specific elements, every so often, C1-23152 is a gasoline-soaked bonfire. unlike what is being observed in reality, they tend to still
which means this spectral symphony can be used to deter- C1-23152 and its similar cousins present astronomers be making stars. Ancient galaxies, including C1-23152,
mine the composition of a galaxy’s stars. Using that power, with a potentially model-breaking conundrum: How can abruptly shut off star formation after a productive peak—
Saracco says, “for the first time, we derived, with very good massive galaxies be assembled and set alight so quickly so either because they run out of hydrogen and helium fuel
accuracy, the mean age of the stellar population inside [C1- early on? For now the answer, in short, is that they can’t. or because the radiation shooting out from fresh crops of
23152] and the time necessary to form those stars.” stars and other overzealous astrophysical sources cooks
The number of elements in C1-23152 that were found to GROWING THE UNIVERSE IN A BOX that gas and blasts it out of reach. Clearly, some ingredi-
be heavier than hydrogen and helium—which astrono- For some time, simulations have struggled to grow these ents are still missing from our virtual recipes, so we can-
mers collectively refer to as “metals”—hinted at its strange- ginormous galaxies. But that does not mean they simply not rely on them for an explanation yet.
ness. Metals are produced by star formation, which jetti- cannot do so. Instead the trouble may lie in how they Scientists have found clues elsewhere that may ac­­
sons them into a galaxy’s interstellar medium through are programmed. count for these ancient mega galaxies. Anastasia Fialkov,
supernovae—making them available for next-generation “When you run a simulation, there’s a trade-off between a cosmologist at the University of Cambridge, who was

24
not involved with the latest work, says that, unlike full- “There’s so much The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, formerly
blown simulations, analytic physics calculations can known as WFIRST and currently targeted for a 2025
“take into account the whole volume of the universe.” uncertainty that goes launch, will have a field of view equivalent to 100 Hub-
And they suggest that a small number of dark matter into galaxy formation.” ble Space Telescopes: its wide, sensitive eyes will see
halos capable of initiating star formation show up just plenty of possible ancient massive galaxies.
40 million years after the big bang.
—Coral Wheeler Those candidates will then need to be forensically
That time is significantly earlier than the majority of examined by looking at their various spectra to deter-
dark matter halos that turn up later on in the youthful mine their properties and confirm they are indeed such
epochs of the universe—those thought to be responsible for These ancient, massive galaxies just represent another galaxies and not imposters. “Ideally, you want a really
seeding much of the galaxies we see today. Instead the halos pathway for galaxies to take. big telescope,” Forrest says. “That gives you more collect-
that appeared 40 million years after the big bang would ing area—it’s a bigger bucket for photons to go into from
have been capable of seeding the beginnings of the ancient BACK TO THE FUTURE an object.” Hawaii’s Thirty Meter Telescope could be
massive galaxies that would eventually become detectable The traditional model survives for now but only, in part, suitable if it is built, and the Extremely Large Telescope
via our telescopes. The early universe was also denser, because few of these massive galaxies have been found. could fit the bill as well. The James Webb Space Tele-
Wheeler notes. That would make scooping up star-making “We’re dealing with small-number statistics,” Forrest scope—which is finally launching this October after an
hydrogen and helium around these primordial dark matter says. Scientists do not have a good grasp of the true abundance of delays—should work well, too. “It’s not as
halos, and eventually galaxies, fairly effortless. amount of the behemoths, however. Until that changes, big,” Forrest says. “The bucket for the photons is a little
Another option, Neeleman says, is that a combination understanding what impact they have on our cosmic bit smaller, but then you don’t have to look through the
of things could have occurred. Rare hyperdense pockets comprehension and how galaxies evolve in different atmosphere,” so there is less interference to deal with.
of the universe would permit multigalaxy mergers very ways will remain ambiguous. Saracco is particularly excited for these upcoming
early on, while streams funneling gas into the hearts of Perhaps we have already seen many more of these old next-generation magnifying glasses because they will do
galaxies could supercharge star formation. megagalaxies than we yet realize. For detailed studies, our more than merely finding extremely distant objects. “We
In any event, the emergence of huge ancient galaxies telescopes are often drawn to the brightest massive but will be able to observe inside [a] galaxy, at single star-form-
is more easily explained if dark matter is cold. Here burnt-out galaxies before their nature is revealed. Astron- ing regions,” he says. In other words, instead of a blurry
“cold” means the dark matter moves relatively slowly. omers have spotted fainter objects with otherwise similar picture of a galaxy’s bulk characteristics, astronomers will
“Hot” dark matter would move at velocities approaching characteristics hanging about in the early universe, how- get a more granular view—the difference between a rough
the speed of light. Generally speaking, the colder the ever, says Stijn Wuyts, an astronomer at the University of sketch and a detailed painting—opening up a new chap-
dark matter, the easier it can condense into galaxy-seed- Bath in England, who was not involved with the recent ter in our understanding of how galaxies form.
ing halos. This assumption may not necessarily be cor- work. They could turn out to be merely less massive galax- Until this help arrives, this scientific field will remain
rect, but “cold dark matter is the simplest dark matter ies or yet more ancient massive ones observed long after in its infancy. “There’s so much uncertainty that goes
scenario that works,” Fialkov says. their star-forming prime. Are these objects dimmer can- into galaxy formation,” Wheeler says.
It is unclear which amalgam of these events, if any, dles closer to home or vast pyres farther afield? It can be unnerving to chase monsters in the dark.
best explains C1-23152’s origins and evolution, let alone As ever, more data are required. And several up­­coming They threaten the dogmas of the era, forcing us to expand
its colossal cousins. “This is not a special corner of the telescopes will aid us in this time-traveling galactic census. our earlier models to fit them. And if those models stretch
universe” we are looking at, Saracco says. More import- First, suspicious bright splotches in the distant past to the point of breaking, that’s okay. “We want to chal-
ant, nothing here threatens to overthrow the tradition- need to be spotted. “If you want to get a bunch of candi- lenge, in some way, the model,” Wheeler says. “When
al slowly-but-surely model of galaxy formation, he says. dates, then a wide field of view is great,” Forrest says. things don’t match, that’s when it gets interesting.”

➦ 25
 Telescopes on Far Side Instruments deployed
on missions to the lunar

of the Moon Could Illuminate far side might give us

an unprecedented view

the Cosmic Dark Ages

of the early universe
By Anil Ananthaswamy

ROBERT HUNT
Radio telescope on the moon’s far side
(shown in an artist's depiction) could
detect signals from early hydrogen clouds.

26
T
Anil Ananthaswamy is author of The Edge of Physics,
The Man Who Wasn't There and, most recently,
Through Two Doors at Once: The Elegant Experiment
That Captures the Enigma of Our Quantum Reality.

The far side of the moon is a strange The seeds of this structure must have been present in absorbing radiation at a wavelength of 21 centimeters
and wild region, quite different from the the dark-age hydrogen clouds, but the era has been (or a frequency of 1,420 megahertz). Such emissions are
familiar and mostly smooth face we see impossible to probe using optical telescopes—there was the “heartbeat” of hydrogen and can add up to detect-
no light. And although this hydrogen produced long-­ able signals when clouds of the gas accumulate on cos-
nightly from our planet. In 1959 the Soviet
wavelength (or low-frequency) radio emissions, radio mic scales.
Luna 3 space probe took the first photo- telescopes on Earth have found it nearly impossible to Such signals should have first emerged about 380,000
graphs of this hidden region. Instead of wide detect them. Our atmosphere either blocks or disturbs years after the big bang, when the universe cooled
plains, the images showed a moonscape these faint signals; those that get through are swamped enough for protons and electrons that previously filled
spiked with mountains. Observations since by humanity’s radio noise. space to coalesce into atoms of hydrogen. Besides form-
then have shown that the far side is also full Scientists have dreamed for decades of studying the ing the raw material from which all subsequent objects
of rugged craters, and within them there are cosmic dark ages from the moon’s far side, shielded from would arise, this event had the added benefit of making
yet more craters. Soon this rough terrain and earthly transmissions and untroubled by any significant the universe transparent rather than opaque, liberating
the space just above it will have even strang- atmosphere to impede cosmic views. Now multiple space the fossil radiation produced by the big bang to stream
agencies plan lunar missions carrying radio-­wave-detect­ through the cosmos. We now see this radiation—the big
er features: it will be teeming with radio
ing instruments—some within the next three years—and bang’s afterglow—as the cosmic microwave background
telescopes, deployed by a new generation astronomers’ dreams are set to become reality. (CMB). Thereafter, neutral hydrogen pervaded the dark
of robotic rovers and lunar orbiters. “If I were to design an ideal place to do low-frequen- universe for perhaps the first few hundred million years,
cy radio astronomy, I would have to build the moon,” until the break of cosmic dawn, when the first stars and
Astronomers are planning to make the moon’s distant says astrophysicist Jack Burns of the University of Colo- galaxies began to shine.
side our newest and best window on the cosmic dark rado Boulder. “We are just now finally getting to the Cosmologists are particularly interested in the dark
ages, a mysterious era hiding early imprints of stars and place where we’re actually going to be putting these tele- ages because they offer a glimpse of the universe when
galaxies. Our universe was not always filled with these scopes down on the moon in the next few years.” it was relatively pristine, free of confounding astrophys-
bright objects that shine across today’s skies. About ical effects. Back then, the distribution of neutral hydro-
380,000 years after the big bang, the universe cooled, THE HYDROGEN HEARTBEAT gen still carried the imprints of primordial quantum
and the first atoms of hydrogen formed. Gigantic clouds The idea that telescopes could detect neutral hydrogen fluctuations that had been profoundly magnified by the
of this element soon filled the cosmos. But for a few hun- goes back to the 1940s, when Dutch astronomer Hen- universe’s rapid expansion in the first fractions of a sec-
dred million years, everything remained dark, devoid of drik Christoffel van de Hulst predicted that hydrogen ond of its history—unsullied by the emergence of stars,
stars. Then came the cosmic dawn: the first stars flick- atoms can spontaneously emit pulses of electromagnet- galaxies and galaxy clusters. It is possible that the 21-cen-
ered, galaxies swirled into existence and slowly the uni- ic radiation. This happens because each atom of hydro- timeter signals from the dark ages could carry indica-
verse’s large-scale structure took shape. gen can flip between two energy states, emitting or tions of new physics or deviations from the standard

27
model of cosmology. “It’s a playground for testing cos- coming from the lander’s electronics. Future dark-age-sur- THE ERA OF ARRAYS
mology,” Burns says. veying lunar spacecraft could include additional shielding Xuelei Chen of the National Astronomical Observatories
The first radio telescopes on and above the far side of to minimize RFI. They could also deploy multiple anten- at the Chinese Academy of Sciences thinks lunar orbit is
the moon will be simple. They will gather hints of this nas across tens or hundreds of kilometers of lunar soil. the best near-term site for creating dark-age-mapping
shadowy slice of otherwise unseen cosmic time. As more The next preparatory phase for far-side astronomy is lunar arrays. Antennas on a number of satellites could
sophisticated instrumentation comes online, the 21-cm set to begin with the launch of ROLSES (Radiowave be configured into an array that carries out observations
signals will emerge in richer detail, allowing astrono- Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron when the satellites are all on the far side. “This is a small
mers to create dynamic, high-resolution maps of hydro- Sheath) this October. ROLSES will travel to the moon experiment with moderate cost, and we could accom-
gen clouds. within a privately developed lander licensed by nasa as plish it with current technology,” Chen says.
“The nice thing about neutral hydrogen is that it’s not part of the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload The tentative plan calls for a fleet of five to eight sat-
just a snapshot in time like the CMB,” says Kristian Zarb Services program. Although it will touch down in the ellites flying in carefully choreographed formation to
Adami of the University of Oxford. By tracking the fluctu- Oceanus Procellarum region on the moon’s near side, form an array. One of the satellites would be a larger
ating 21-cm signal over cosmic time, telescopes can chart ROLSES’s task of characterizing the RFI generated by mother ship that would host most of the electronics for
the evolution of the early universe through the dark ages lunar soil is crucial for future work identifying other receiving and combining the signals from other satel-
all the way up to the cosmic dawn and even beyond. After radio signals on the far side. “This is real,” says Burns, lites and then relaying the results to Earth. “We want to
the dawn came the epoch of reionization, when the radi- who is a member of the ROLSES team. “I have been have them launched as an assemblage, and then they
ation from the first massive stars and other violent astro- working on this for 35 years. It’s actually happening.” will be released one by one,” Chen says.
physical phenomena sufficiently reheated the remaining Another mission to characterize the radio-frequency Putting such an array on the far side’s surface will be
neutral hydrogen to transform it back to plasma. That interference on the moon—the Lunar Surface Electro- far more challenging for many reasons, among them the
epoch ultimately extinguished the 21-cm signals. magnetics Experiment (LuSEE)—is slated to launch as moon’s rugged terrain and the spacecraft-threatening
early as 2024. “LuSEE is going to the far side,” Burns chill of the 14-day-long lunar night. To begin preparing
FAR-SIDE PIONEERS says. “It’s going to go to the Schrömdinger impact basin.” for this type of mission, Foing’s team is planning to test
Some pathfinder instruments are already in operation. The lander carrying LuSEE may also have another pay- the deployment of radio antennas using robotic rovers
They are part of China’s Chang’e-4 lander on the moon’s load: DAPPER (Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder), a designed by the German Aerospace Center. The test will
far side, as well as a lunar orbiter named Queqiao telescope for detecting the 21-cm signal from the cosmic occur in June on the flanks of Mount Etna, an active vol-
(“Mag­­pie Bridge”), which relays signals from the land- dark ages. “DAPPER was originally designed to be an cano in Sicily meant as a proxy for the lunar surface. Sci-
er to Earth. Queqiao was launched in May 2018, and orbiter around the moon, but it may go on this lander,” entists will control the rovers remotely; each rover will
Chang’e-4 reached the lunar surface in January 2019. Burns says. “nasa has funded us to work on the mission carry four boxes of antennas. “We will position them in
“This was the first time there was a soft landing on the concept for DAPPER. We’ll be ready to go.” different configurations to show that we will be able to
far side of the moon,” says Bernard Foing, executive Whether in orbit or on the lunar surface, DAPPER do that in the future on the moon,” Foing says.
director of the International Lunar Exploration Work- will be limited to a set of dipole antennas in one loca- Another way of deploying a radio array on the moon’s
ing Group and a planetary scientist at VU Amsterdam. tion. But astronomers have more ambitious plans for far side would be to simply drop antennas from an orbit-
“It was a great success.” deploying arrays of antennas on the moon. These arrays, er to land and unfurl where they may. Adami and his col-
Both Chang’e-4 and Queqiao carried radio antennas. But which combine signals from individual antennas spread leagues are working on one such idea: a low-frequency
those on Queqiao, built in collaboration with Dutch scien- over large distances, act as telescopes with resolutions interferometer, designed to precisely measure charac-
tists, did not extend completely, and Chang’e-4’s single far greater than would be possible with a single antenna teristics of radio emissions, that involves 128 fractal-like
antenna is hindered by radio-frequency interference (RFI) and can effectively pinpoint sources in the sky. “mini stations.” Each station has eight arms, and each

28
arm combines 16 spiral antennas. “My idea would be
that these fall off from the satellite and all land in differ-
ent parts on the moon’s surface,” Adami says.
To minimize the number of moving parts, the team
has figured out how to print these antennas as flat sheets
that will take their final form after being rolled out on
the lunar surface. “You could print antennas as fast as
you print newspapers. We’ve been testing this technolo-
gy for the past four or five years,” Adami says. “We are in
the process of prototyping these spiral antennas.” The
next step, he adds, is for the scientists to design a mini
station and drop it from a drone in remote areas, such
as an arid region of Western Australia, to see if it unfurls.
Meanwhile Burns is also leading a nasa-funded con-
cept study for building another lunar radio telescope,
aptly called FARSIDE (Farside Array for Radio Science
Investigations of the Dark ages and Exoplanets). To
design FARSIDE, Burns and co-principal investigator
Gregg Hallinan of the California Institute of Technology
have teamed up with nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The scientists are looking to land a payload of four rov-
ers and 256 antennas, totaling about 1.5 metric tons,
using lunar landers funded by nasa. The rovers would
deploy the antennas, spreading them in four flowerlike
petals over a region that is 10 kilometers in diameter.
“We can do this with current technology,” Burns says. “So
this all looks very plausible [for] later in the decade.”

➦ 29
Astronomer
Avi Loeb
Says Aliens
Have Visited,
and He’s Not
Kidding
In conversation, the
Harvard University
professor explains his
shocking hypothesis—
and calls out what
he sees as a crisis
in science
By Lee Billings

JEMAL COUNTESS GETTY IMAGES

Astrophysicist Avi Loeb at the unveiling
of the Breakthrough Starshot initiative
in New York City on April 12, 2016.

30
 Lee Billings is a senior editor for space and
physics at Scientific American.

Avi Loeb is no stranger to controversy. The prolific Harvard

University astrophysicist has produced pioneering and provocative research on
The paper has been a smash hit with journalists but
has fallen flat with most of Loeb’s astrobiology-focused
black holes, gamma-ray bursts, the early universe and other standard topics of his peers, who insist that, while strange, ‘Oumuamua’s prop-
erties still place it well within the realm of natural phe-
field. But for more than a decade he has also courted a more contentious subject— nomena. To claim otherwise, Loeb’s critics say, is cava-
namely, space aliens, including how to find them. Until relatively recently, Loeb’s lier at best and destructive at worst for the long struggle
most high-profile work in that regard was his involvement with Breakthrough to remove the stigma of credulous UFO and alien-abduc-
Starshot, a project funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Yuri Milner to send laser- tion reports from what should unquestionably be a legit-
boosted, gossamer-thin mirrorlike spacecraft called “light sails” on high-speed imate field of scientific inquiry.
voyages to nearby stars. All that began to change in late 2017, however, when Loeb has now taken his case to the public with the
book Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life
astronomers around the world scrambled to study an enigmatic interstellar beyond Earth, which is just as much about the author’s
visitor—the first ever seen—that briefly came within range of their telescopes. life story as it is about ‘Oumuamua’s fundamental mys-
teries. Scientific American spoke with Loeb about the
The object’s discoverers dubbed it ‘Oumuamua—a But no signs of such jets were seen around ‘Oumuamua. book, his controversial hypothesis and why he believes
Hawaiian term that roughly translates to “scout.” The To Loeb, the most plausible explanation was as obvi- science is in crisis.
unavoidably cursory examinations of this celestial pass- ous as it was sensational: taken together with its possi- [An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
erby showed it had several properties that defied easy nat- bly pancakelike shape and high reflectivity, ‘Oumua-
ural explanation. ‘Oumuamua’s apparent shape—which mua’s anomalous acceleration made perfect sense if the Hi, Avi. How are you?
was like a 100-meter-long cigar or pancake—did not close- object was in fact a light sail—perhaps a derelict from I’m good, but I have been losing sleep, because in order
ly resemble any known asteroid or comet. Neither did its some long-expired galactic culture. Primed by years to cope with all the media requests, I’ve been doing
brightness, which revealed ‘Oumuamua was at least 10 spent pondering how we might someday find evidence interviews with, for example, Good Morning Britain at
times more reflective than one of our solar system’s typi- of cosmic civilizations in the sky’s depths, he became 1:50 a.m. and Coast to Coast am at 3 a.m.—plus appear-
cal space rocks—shiny enough to suggest the gleam of increasingly convinced that, with ‘Oumuamua, the evi- ances on U.S. network and cable television. I’ve got
burnished metal. Most strangely, as it zoomed off after dence had instead found us. In late 2018 Loeb and his about 100 podcast interviews to do in the next few
swooping by the sun, the object sped up faster than could co-author Shmuel Bialy, a Harvard postdoctoral fellow, weeks. And I already recorded long conversations with
be explained by our star’s waning gravitational grip published a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters [podcasters] Lex Fridman and Joe Rogan for their
alone. Run-of-the-mill comets can exhibit similar accel- arguing that ‘Oumuamua had been nothing less than shows. I’ve never seen anything like this; there has been
erations because of the rocketlike effect of evaporating humanity’s first contact with an artifact of extraterres- so much interest in the book. I mean, there were 10 film-
gases jetting from their sunlight-warmed icy surfaces. trial intelligence. makers and producers from Hollywood who contacted

31
me over the past few weeks! I joked with my literary
agent that if a film comes out of this, I want to be played
by Brad Pitt.

Hah, indeed, the resemblance is uncanny. Based

on your productivity, I’ve never gotten the sense
that you get a lot of sleep anyway.
My routine is to wake up each morning at 5 a.m. and go
jogging. It’s really beautiful when nobody's outside—just
me and the birds, ducks and rabbits. And, yes, because
of the pandemic, the past 10 months have been the most
productive in my career. I don’t need to commute to
work. I don’t need to meet so many people. And most
important, I don’t need to think about what’s wrong
with all the things that other people say!

Speaking of important things, here is one I think

we both agree on: in science, we must keep each
other honest. I mention it only because there’s
a point in Extraterrestrial where you claim
you don’t want the limelight and that you’re not
interested in self-promotion. How can that be true?
Let me explain. I think talking to the media is an import-
ant opportunity because it allows me to share my mes-
sage with a broader audience that otherwise would not
have exposure to it.

What is your message, exactly? I take it you’re

talking about more than ‘Oumuamua.
Yes. My message is that something is wrong with the sci- Marked with a blue circle, ‘Oumuamua appears as a faint dot in the center of this image, which is one of the best available and
combines observations from multiple different telescopes.
entific community today in terms of its health.
Too many scientists are now mostly motivated by ego,
by getting honors and awards, by showing their col- voice will be louder and their image will be promoted. which we take risks and make mistakes along the way.

ESO/ K. MEECH ET AL.

leagues how smart they are. They treat science as a But that’s not the purpose of science. Science is not You can never tell in advance, when you work on the
monologue about themselves rather than a dialogue about us; it’s not about empowering ourselves or mak- frontier, what is the right path forward. You only learn
with nature. They build echo chambers using students ing our image great. It’s about trying to understand the that by getting feedback from experiments.
and postdocs who repeat their mantras so that their world, and it’s meant to be a learning experience in Which is the other problem with science today: peo-

32
ple are not only motivated by the wrong reasons; they “There are, of course, science-fiction stories
are also no longer guided by evidence. Evidence keeps
you modest because you predict something, you test it,
about aliens, and there are many unsubstantiated
and the evidence sometimes shows you’re wrong. Right UFO reports. Now, suppose there was some literature about the
now you have many celebrated scientists doing mathe- magical properties of COVID-19 that had no bearing in reality.
matical gymnastics about lots of untestable things: string Would that mean scientists should never work on finding
theory, the multiverse, even the theory of cosmic infla-
a vaccine to this pandemic? No! I don’t see the search for
tion. Once, in a public forum, I asked [physicist] Alan
Guth, who originated the theory, “Is inflation falsifiable?” technological signatures any differently from the search
And he said it’s a silly question, because for whatever cos- for the nature of dark matter.”
mological data an experiment gives us, a model of infla- —Avi Loeb
tion can be found that accommodates it. And therefore,
inflation is in a very strong position because it can explain
anything! But I see this as a very weak position because a appealing to “aliens” can explain anything, too. stars have a planet about the size of Earth, at about the
theory of everything is sometimes a theory of nothing. The difference is: you can make predictions and test same distance of Earth from the sun, so that you can have
There may be no difference between the two. for the latter, and the speculations come from a conserva- liquid water on the surface and the chemistry of life as we
To me, this bubble of imaginary stuff is like being tive position. know it. So if you roll the dice on life billions of times in
high on drugs: You can get high and imagine that you’re If ‘Oumuamua is a member of a population of objects the Milky Way, what is the chance that we are alone?
wealthier than Elon Musk, who is now the richest per- moving on random trajectories, then based on its discov- Minuscule, most likely! To say that if you arrange for sim-
son in the world. That’s a very fun thought. You can feel ery with the Pan-STARRS telescope, you can estimate that ilar circumstances, you get similar outcomes is, to me, the
really good about it and talk about it with your friends. we should very soon begin finding, on average, one of most conservative statement imaginable. So I would
And if you’re part of a big like-minded community, these objects per month after the Vera C. Rubin Observa- expect most people to endorse that, to hug me and say,
everyone can support and respect one another, and you tory comes online. We can also establish a system of “Great, Avi, you’re correct. We should look for these things
give one another awards, and that’s great, right? But instruments—satellites, maybe—that would not only because they must be very likely.” Instead what I see is a
then if you go to withdraw funds, if you want to really monitor the sky but also be able to react to the approach backlash that shows a loss of an intellectual compass—
spend that money you think you have, you realize that of such objects so we can get photographs of them as they because how else can you explain working on string theo-
you don’t actually have anything. Just like going to an come in rather than chasing them as they go out, because ry’s extra dimensions or the multiverse when we have no
ATM, doing experiments can serve as a reality check. they move very fast. Not all this work needs to be in space, clue for their existence? But that is considered main-
And in science, it’s essential that we have that check— either: You can imagine meteors of interstellar origin as stream? That’s crazy.
that we make testable predictions and put some skin in well, and we can search for those. And if you find any that Allow me to put this in a very specific context. I’m obvi-
the game—because otherwise we won’t learn anything ended up on Earth’s surface, you might even be able to ously not a rebel outsider; I’m in leadership positions. I
new. I don’t think that’s properly recognized anymore. examine them with your own hands. chair the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the Nation-
People ask why I get this media attention. The only rea- al Academies [of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine],
So speculating about string theory and son is because my colleagues are not using common sense. okay? That board is overseeing the Astronomy and Astro-
multiverses is bad, but speculating about Contrast string theory and multiverses with what I and physics Decadal Survey, which will set major science pri-
alien civilizations and their artifacts passing many others say, which is that based on the data from orities for nasa and the [National Science Foundation]
through the solar system is okay? You could say nasa’s Kepler mission, roughly half of the galaxy’s sunlike when it is released later this year. Now, I see astronomers

33
 matician Blaise Pascal’s argument that the bene-
talking about future telescopes costing billions of dollars,
fits of assuming God exists outweigh the draw-
with the main motivation being to find life by looking for
backs. Similarly, you say believing ‘Oumuamua
oxygen in the atmospheres of exoplanets. That is a noble
is an alien artifact would be a net good because it
wish. But if you look at Earth for its first two billion years
could catalyze a revolution in space science and
or so, the planet did not have much oxygen in its atmo-
technology centered on a more vigorous search
sphere even though it had a lot of microbial life. That’s
for life and intelligence beyond Earth. Even if
point number one. Point number two is that even if you
that hunt finds no aliens, your reasoning goes,
have oxygen, you can get it from natural processes such
we’d still gain a much deeper understanding of
as breaking apart water molecules. So even if you spend
our cosmic context. And the investments behind it
these billions and find oxygen and maybe even find meth-
would enhance our ability to answer other ques-
ane along with it, people will still argue about it forever.
tions about the universe and perhaps even help
Look at how much discussion there has been about the
stave off our own extinction. But if the stakes are
potential detection of phosphine on Venus, which is a
so high, what about the counterargument that
very unusual molecule, compared with oxygen. Anyway,
going “all in” on promoting ‘Oumuamua’s puta-
my point is that with these same instruments—you don’t
tive artificial nature is reckless and dangerous?
need any extra investment of funds—you can actually get
Your critics say you are doing more harm than
conclusive evidence for life, intelligence and technology.
good. For instance, you mentioned you appeared
What would that be? Industrial pollution in the same
on Joe Rogan’s podcast, one of the most popular
atmosphere. You could, for instance, look for chlorofluo-
in the world. That’s great for selling books. But
rocarbons, these complex molecules only produced on
given Rogan’s reputation for spreading dange-
Earth for refrigeration systems. If you found that on
rous misinformation on his podcast, is that sort
another planet, there is just no way nature would produce
of thing a wise move? Would you also agree to be
these molecules naturally. You would have conclusive evi-
dence that life—and more—existed there. a speaker at a gathering of UFO “true believers”
outside Area 51? Where do you draw the line for
So what is the problem with saying that looking for
public outreach that risks enhancing the so-
industrial pollution is a worthwhile thing to do? What
called giggle factor that has stymied progress in
other than some sort of psychological barrier that pre-
the search for extraterrestrial intelligence [SETI]
vents some scientists from admitting they want the search suppose there was some literature about the magical prop-
for decades?
for technological signatures of alien civilizations to be at erties of ­COVID-19 that had no bearing in reality. Would
the periphery, with very little funding? What I’m saying is
Okay, here is my point of view. By and large, the public that mean scientists should never work on finding a vac-
that these sorts of things should be prioritized and that
funds science. And the public is extremely interested in cine to this pandemic? No! I don’t see the search for tech-

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

they are conservative things to do because they will bring
the search for alien life. So I must ask: If scientists are nological signatures any differently from the search for the
us the most information about the existence of alien life.
supported by the public, how dare they shy away from nature of dark matter. We have invested hundreds of mil-
And yet the opposite is being done right now. this question that can be addressed with the technolo- lions of dollars in searching for weakly interacting massive
gies they are developing? particles, a leading dark matter candidate. And so far those
You write about a concept you call “‘Oumuamua’s There are, of course, science-fiction stories about aliens, searches have failed. That doesn’t mean they were a waste:
wager,” after Pascal’s wager, 17th-century mathe- and there are many unsubstantiated UFO reports. Now, going down dark alleys is part of the scientific process.

34
 And in terms of risk, in science, we are supposed to put So they loudly say the opposite. that, I imagined it as applied to ‘Oumuamua. Now, you
everything on the table. We cannot just avoid certain ideas Unfortunately, my situation is different from that of might ask, “Okay, well, isn’t that a biased view?” I would
because we worry about the consequences of discussing the young postdocs who I’ve worked with because they say this occurs again and again in physics and in SETI.
them, because there is great risk in that, too. That would need to apply for jobs. I’m sure that people have In the context of SETI, you know, once we developed
be similar to telling Galileo not to speak about Earth mov- approached them and said, “Look, this is dangerous for radio technology, we started searching the sky looking
ing around the sun and to avoid looking in his telescope you.” And so they froze and basically stopped working for radio signals. It was the same for lasers. It’s just nat-
because it was dangerous to the philosophy of the day. We on anything related. This isn’t surprising. If you create a ural that once you work on some technology that you
should not want to repeat that experience. We need an hostile intellectual culture where something like SETI is imagine maybe it exists out there and search for it. So I
open dialogue among scientists where people present dif- not being honored, then young, bright people will not go would not deny that the reason the light sail idea was in
ferent ideas and then allow evidence to dictate which one there. But don’t step on the grass and then complain it my brain is because I had previously worked on it, yeah.
is right. In the context of ‘Oumuamua, I say the available doesn’t grow as you stand on it. Don’t block brilliant But in terms of trying to motivate Yuri, that has nothing
evidence suggests this particular object is artificial, and researchers from working on SETI and then say, “Look, to do with it. Why would I do it this way when I can just
the way to test this is to find more [examples] of the same nothing is being found. SETI is a failure!” approach him directly whenever I want to advocate my
and examine them. It’s as simple as that. None of this means all of space science should be views? And it is not as if my work on ‘Oumuamua was
So how do you change this situation? I think the answer about SETI. If you look at the commercial world, compa- coordinated with or supported by Breakthrough Initia-
is to bring it to the public as much as I can. nies such as Bell Labs in the past or Google now, they tives. They have issued no press releases about my ideas.
incentivize and allow for their personnel to pursue inno- If anything, they might be worried—they have their own
In your book, you link your outspokenness about vative “blue sky” research that is not immediately appli- reputation to preserve and so forth. On this issue, I’ve
‘Oumuamua with a phrase, an ethos, you learned cable for profit. But if you look at academia, it’s much had zero support from or communication with them.
when you were a conscript in the Israel Defense more conservative than the commercial sector. That This was me being curious, not using ‘Oumuamua as
Forces: “To lay your body on the barbed wire.” doesn’t make sense. some sort of a political vehicle in the context of Break-
That is, to make personal sacrifices for the greater through. That has nothing to do with my motivation.
good. Are you to be a martyr for this cause, then? How do you respond to the idea that for a person
Have you lost friends or stature over it? with a hammer, everything looks like a nail? After this, what comes next for you?
No one has violently assaulted me or anything like that. Someone could uncharitably say what you Do you have plans?
Maybe people talk behind my back, which would make are really doing here is attempting to curry I just stepped down from being chair of Harvard’s
more sense, given my leadership positions. But I don’t further favor with wealthy benefactors, such as astronomy department, so I really do have the ability
really know. I have zero footprint on social media. Yuri Milner, because you are an adviser for his now to move to the next phase. And the question is:
Although I should say that I think my critics who are Breakthrough Initiatives programs, which fund What would it be? Life, of course, is not always what
most vocal with nasty remarks on Twitter and elsewhere research related to SETI and light sails. you’ve planned, but another leadership opportunity
are relatively mediocre scientists. Most really good sci- It’s true for me—and everyone else, I think—that my would be so tempting because I could try to shape real-
entists would not behave that way—they would make imagination is limited by what I know. I can’t deny the ity in a way others would not. I couldn’t pass that up. But
arguments for or against my claims, and that would be fact that my involvement in Breakthrough was influen- maybe we should exclude leadership possibilities from
enough. Nasty remarks don’t make sense—except, well, tial here. I was the one who suggested the light sail [pro- this. Maybe I won’t be offered anything again because of
deep inside, I would not be surprised if many of these posed by physicist Philip Lubin] to Yuri Milner as a my ideas about ‘Oumuamua! That’s a possibility. Then
critics are actually quite intrigued by this possibility that promising concept for interstellar spacecraft in the first I’d write more books, do more research and continue to
‘Oumuamua is artificial. But they don’t want to admit it. place. So I had it in my vocabulary, and as a result of jog every morning.

➦ 35
 OPINION Caleb A. Scharf is director of astrobiology at Columbia University. He
is author and co-author of more than 100 scientific research articles in
astronomy and astrophysics. His work has been featured in publications
such as New Scientist, Scientific American, Science News, Cosmos
Magazine, Physics Today and National Geographic. For many years he
wrote the Life, Unbounded blog for Scientific American.

SPACE

Until Recently,
People Accepted
the “Fact” of
Aliens in the
Solar System
For centuries, right up until the 1960s,
the notion of life on Mars—and elsewhere—
wasn’t considered especially remarkable

O
ne of the most intriguing aspects of the
history of the human quest to discover
whether or not there is other life in the uni-
verse, and whether any of it is recognizably intelli-
gent in the way that we are, is just how much our
philosophical mood has changed back and forth
across the centuries.
Today we’re witnessing a bit of a “golden age”
in terms of active work toward answers. Much of
that work stems from the overlapping revolutions
in exoplanetary science and solar system explo- Many people found Percival Lowell's
claim at the turn of the 20th century

GETTY IMAGES
ration, and our ongoing revelations about the that he could see artificial canals on
sheer diversity and tenacity of life here on Earth. Mars to be unremarkable.
Together these areas of study have given us

36
 OPINION

places to look, phenomena to look for, and wealth of life on Earth was simply repeated the time largely disagreed with these specific
increased confidence that we’re quickly ap- elsewhere. That is once one let go of a sense of interpretations. Interestingly, that was because
proaching the point where our technical prowess earthly uniqueness. they simply couldn’t reproduce the observations,
may cross the necessary threshold for finding In other words, in many quarters there was no finding the markings he associated with canals
some answers about life elsewhere. “Are we alone?” question being asked; instead the and civilizations to be largely nonexistent (an
Into that mix goes the search for extraterrestrial debate was already onto the details of how the life example of how better data can discount pet
intelligence (SETI), as we’ve become more com- elsewhere in the cosmos went about its business. theories). But aside from Lowell’s distractions, the
fortable with the notion that the technological In the 1700s and 1800s we had astronomers existence of a temperate climate of sorts on Mars
restructuring and repurposing of matter is some- like William Herschel or the more amateur Thomas was not easy to discount, nor was life on its
thing we can, and should, be actively looking for. If Dick not only proposing that our solar system, from surface. For example, Carl Sagan and Paul Swan
for no other reason than our own repurposing of the moon to the outer planets, was overrun with published a paper just ahead of Mariner 4’s arrival
matter, here on Earth, has become ever more vivid life-forms (Dick holding the record by suggesting at Mars in which they wrote:
and fraught and therefore critical to appreciate and that Saturn’s rings held around eight trillion “The present body of scientific evidence
modify in aid of long-term survival. But this search, individuals) but convincing themselves that they suggests, but does not unambiguously demon-
labeled as both SETI and the quest for “technosig- could see the evidence. Herschel, with his good strate, the existence of life on Mars. In particular,
natures,” still faces some daunting challenges–not telescopes, becoming convinced there were the photometrically observed waves of darkening
least the catch-up required after decades of forests on the moon, in the Mare humorum, and which proceed from the vaporizing polar caps
receiving a less than stellar allocation of scientific speculating that the sun’s dark spots were actually through the dark areas of the Martian surface
resources. holes in a glowing hot atmosphere, beneath which have been interpreted in terms of seasonal
What is so fascinating is that in many respects a cool surface supported large alien beings. biological activity.”
we have already been here and done all of this Even though we might question some of their Suffice to say, this proposal went the way of
before, just not recently and not with the same scientific standards, people such as Herschel and many other overly optimistic ideas about finding
set of tools that we now have in hand. Dick were indeed following the philosophy of life life on the Red Planet. Although it is fascinating
In western Europe, during the period from some being everywhere and elevating it to the level of how well the periodic darkening phenomenon
400 years ago until the past century, the question any other observable phenomenon. Herschel was they discussed could indeed fit into a picture of
of life beyond Earth seems to have been less of also applying the best scientific instruments he a sur­­face biosphere on Mars–and remains
“if” and more of “what.” Famous scientists such as could at the time. perhaps a rather sobering lesson in overinterpret-
Christiaan Huygens wrote in his Cosmotheoros of All the way into the 20th century, prior to the ing limited data.
“So many Suns, so many Earths, and every one of data obtained by the Mariner 4 flyby in 1965, the But the key point is that we have actually more
them stock’d with so many Herbs, Trees and possibility that Mars had a more clement surface often than not been of a mindset that life is out
Animals … even the little Gentlemen round Jupiter environment, and therefore life, still carried signifi- there and could explain certain cosmic observa-
and Saturn …” And this sense of cosmic plurality cant weight. Although there had been extreme tions. The problem has been that as data have
wasn’t uncommon. It was in almost all respects far claims like Percival Lowell’s “canals” on Mars in the improved and scrutiny has intensified, the pres-
simpler and more reasonable to assume that the late 1800s and very early 1900s, astronomers of ence of life has not revealed itself–from planetary

37
 OPINION

exploration or from the search for extraterrestrial

intelligence. And because of that we’ve swung to
the other extreme, where the question has gone
from “what” all the way back to “if.”
Of course, we have also likely systematically
underestimated the challenge across the centu-
ries. Even today it is apparent that the search for
structured radio emissions from technological life
has thus far only scratched the surface of a
complex parameter space; a fact beautifully
quantified and articulated by Jason Wright and his
colleagues in 2018, as being much like looking in
a hot tub of water to draw conclusions about the
contents of Earth’s oceans.
In that sense, perhaps the more fundamental
question is whether or not we are, this time,
technologically equipped to crack the puzzle once
and for all. There is little doubt that our capacity to
sense the most ethereal, fleeting phenomena in
the cosmos is at an all-time high. But there seems
to be a fine line between acknowledging that
exciting possibility and falling prey to the kind of
hubris that some of our precursors fell prey to.
Naturally, we say, this is the most special time in
human existence—if we can only expand our
minds and our efforts, then all may be revealed!
Of course, none of us can know for sure which
way this will all go. We might do better being very
explicit about the uncertainty inherent in all of this,
because it’s actually incredibly exciting to have to
face the unknown and unknowable. What we
shouldn’t do is allow the unpredictable nature of
this particular pendulum, swinging between
possibilities, to dissuade us from trying.

➦ 38
 OPINION John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings at the
Stevens Institute of Technology. His books include The End of
Science, The End of War and Mind-Body Problems (available for
free at mindbodyproblems.com). For many years, he wrote the
immensely popular blog Cross Check for Scientific American.

MATH

Quantum
Mechanics,
Free Will and
the Game of Life
Some thoughts triggered by the death
of mathematician John Conway

B
efore I get to the serious stuff, a quick story
about John Conway, a.k.a. the “mathemati-
cal magician.” I met him in 1993 in Prince-
ton while working on “The Death of Proof.” When
I poked my head into his office, Conway was sit-
ting with his back to me staring at a computer.
Hair tumbled down his back; his sagging pants
exposed his ass cleft. His office overflowed with
books, journals, food wrappers and paper polyhe-
drons, many dangling from the ceiling. When I ten-
tatively announced myself, he yelled without turn- day of the week of any date, past or present, as of 82. The Times focuses on the enduring
ing, What’s your birthday! Uh, June 23, I said. Year! quickly as possible. He, Conway informed me with influence of the Game of Life, a cellular automa-
Conway shouted. Year! 1953, I replied. After a a manic grin, is one of the world’s fastest day-of- ton invented by Conway more than a half century
split second he blurted out, Tuesday! He tapped the-week calculators. ago. Scientific American’s legendary math colum-

GETTY IMAGES
his keyboard, stared at the screen and exulted, This encounter came back to me recently as nist Martin Gardner introduced the Game of Life,
Yes! Finally facing me, Conway explained that he I read a wonderful New York Times tribute to sometimes just called Life, to the world in 1970
belongs to a group of people who calculate the Conway, felled by COVID-19 last year at the age after receiving a letter about it from Conway. The

39
 OPINION

Times riff on Life got me thinking anew about old in different ways. It resembles a digital, animated many cellular automata that incorporate quantum
riddles. Like, Does free will exist? Rorschach test upon which scholars project their effects, including nonlocality. There are even
Some background. A cellular automaton is a biases. For example, philosopher Daniel Dennett, quantum versions of the Game of Life. But,
grid of cells whose states depend on the states commenting on Conway’s invention in the Times, predictably, experts disagree on whether nonlocal
of neighboring cells, as determined by preset points out that Life’s “higher-order patterns” cellular automata bolster the case for free will.
rules. The Game of Life is a two-dimensional emerge from processes that are “completely One prominent explorer of quantum cellular
cellular automaton with square cells that can be unmysterious and explicable.... No psionic fields, automata, Nobel laureate Gerard ‘t Hooft, flatly
in one of two states, alive or dead (often repre- no morphic resonances, no élan vital, no dualism.” rules out the possibility of free will. In his 2015
sented by black or white). *A given cell’s state Dennett’s comment annoyed me at first; Life monograph The Cellular Automaton Interpretation
depends on the state of its eight immediate just gives him an excuse to reiterate his defense of Quantum Mechanics, ‘t Hooft argues that some
neighbors. A dead cell comes to life if three of its of hard-core materialism. But Life, Dennett goes annoying features of quantum mechanics—nota-
neighbors are alive, and a live cell stays alive if on to say, shows that deterministic rules can bly its inability to specify precisely where an
two or three of its neighbors are alive. Otherwise, generate “complex adaptively appropriate struc- electron will be when we observe it—can be
the cell dies or remains dead. So simple!* And yet tures” capable of “action” and “control.” Yes! I eliminated by reconfiguring the theory as a
Life, when the rules are applied over and over, thought, my own bias coming into play. Dennett cellular automaton. ‘t Hooft’s model assumes the
ideally by a computer, yields endlessly varied clearly means that deterministic processes can existence of “hidden variables” underlying appar-
patterns, including quasianimated clusters of cells spawn phenomena that transcend determinism, ently random quantum behavior. His model leads
known as “longboats,” “gliders,” “spaceships” and like minds with free will. him to a position called “superdeterminism,” which
my favorite, “Speed Demonoids.” Then another thought occurred to me, inspired eliminates (as far as I can tell; ‘t Hooft’s argu-
Like the Mandelbrot set, the famous fractal by my ongoing effort to understand quantum ments aren’t easy for me to follow) any hope for
icon, the Game of Life inspired the fields of chaos mechanics. Conventional cellular automata, free will. Our fates are fixed from the big bang on.
and complexity, which are so similar that I lump including Life, are strictly local, in the sense that Another authority on cellular automata, Stephen
them together under a single term: chaoplexity. what happens in one cell depends on what Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and other popular
Chaoplexologists assume that just as Life’s odd happens in its neighboring cells. But quantum mathematical programs, proposes that free will is
digital fauna and flora stem from straightforward mechanics suggests that nature seethes with possible. In his 2002 opus A New Kind of Science,
rules, so do many real-world things. With the help nonlocal “spooky actions.” Remote, apparently Wolfram argues that cellular automata can solve
of computer simulations, chaoplexologists hoped disconnected things can be “entangled,” influenc- many scientific and philosophical puzzles, including
to discover the rules, or algorithms, underpinning ing each other in mysterious ways, as if via the free will. He notes that many cellular automata,
stuff that has long resisted conventional scientific filaments of ghostly, hyperdimensional cobwebs. including the Game of Life, display the property of
analysis, from immune systems and brains to I wondered: Can cellular automata incorporate “computational irreducibility.” That is, you cannot
stock markets and whole civilizations. (The “big nonlocal entanglements? And if so, might these predict in advance what the cellular automata are
data” movement has recycled the hope, and hype, cellular automata provide even more support for going to do, you can only watch and see what
of chaoplexology.) free will than the Game of Life? Google gave me happens. This unpredictability is compatible with
Of course, the Game of Life can be interpreted tentative answers. Yes, researchers have created free will, or so Wolfram suggests.

40
 OPINION

John Conway, Life’s creator, also defended predictable, at least for those who know me.
free will. In a 2009 paper, “The Strong Free Will For example, here I am arguing for free will
Theorem,” Conway and Simon Kochen argue once again. I do so not because physical pro-
that quantum mechanics, plus relativity, provide cesses in my brain compel me to do so. I defend
grounds for belief in free will. At the heart of free will because the idea of free will matters to
their argument is a thought experiment in which me, and I want it to matter to others. I am
physicists measure the spin of particles. Accord- committed to free will for philosophical, ethical
ing to Conway and Kochen, the physicists are and even political reasons. I believe, for example,
free to measure the particles in dozens of ways, that deterministic views of human nature make
which are not dictated by the preceding state of us more likely to accept sexism, racism and
the universe. Similarly, the particles’ spin, as mea- militarism. No physics model–not even the most
sured by the physicists, is not predetermined. complex, nonlocal cellular automaton–can
Their analysis leads Conway and Kochen to capture my rational and, yes, emotional motives
conclude that the physicists possess free for believing in free will, but that doesn’t mean
will—and so do the particles they are measuring. these motives lack causal power.
“Our provocative ascription of free will to Just as it cannot prove or disprove God’s
elementary particles is deliberate,” Conway and existence, science will never decisively confirm
Kochen write, “since our theorem asserts that if or deny free will. In fact, ‘t Hooft might be right.
experimenters have a certain freedom, then I might be just a mortal, 3-D, analog version of
particles have exactly the same kind of free- the Speed Demonoid, plodding from square to
dom.” That last part, which ascribes free will to square, my thoughts and actions dictated by
particles, threw me at first; it sounded too woo. hidden, superdeterministic rules far beyond my
Then I recalled that prominent scientists are ken. But I can’t accept that grim worldview.
advocating panpsychism, the idea that con- Without free will, life lacks meaning and hope.
sciousness pervades all matter, not just brains. If Especially in dark times, my faith in free will
we grant electrons consciousness, why not give consoles me and makes me feel less bullied by
them free will, too? the deadly Game of Life.
To be honest, I have a problem with all these
treatments of free will, pro and con. They
examine free will within the narrow, reductionis-
tic framework of physics and mathematics, and
they equate free will with randomness and
unpredictability. My choices, at least important
ones, are not random, and they are all too

➦ 41
 OPINION Avi Loeb is former chair (2011–2020) of the astronomy department at Harvard University, founding
director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative and director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He also chairs the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the
National Academies and the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project and is a member of
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Loeb is author of Extraterrestrial: The First
Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.

SPACE

Did a
Supermassive
Black Hole
Influence the
Evolution of Life
on Earth?
The idea isn’t as absurd as it might sound

I
n 1939 Albert Einstein published a paper in An-
nals of Mathematics, arguing that black holes do
not exist in nature. A quarter of a century later
Maarten Schmidt discovered quasars as powerful
sources of light at cosmological distances. These
enigmatic pointlike sources were explained in the
mid-1960s by Yakov Zel’dovich in the East and
Ed Salpeter in the West as supermassive black

MARK GARLICK GETTY IMAGES

holes that are fed with gas from their host galax-
ies. When gas flows toward the black hole, it
swirls like water going down the drain.
As the gas approaches a fraction of the speed
of light at the innermost stable circular orbit
(ISCO) around the black hole, it heats up by

42
 OPINION

rubbing against itself through turbulent viscosity. The “smoking gun” evidence for recent feeding if the solar system had only been10 times closer
Consequently, its accretion disk glows brightly, episodes of SgrA* by massive quantities of gas is to the center of the Milky Way. But even at larger
radiating away about a tenth of its rest mass and that young stars around SgrA* orbit in preferred distances, the XUV radiation could suppress the
exceeding by orders of magnitude the total planes. This implies that these stars formed out growth of complex life, creating an effect similar
luminosity from stars in its host galaxy. High feed- of planar gas disks, just like the planets in the to stepping on a lawn so frequently that you
ing rates make quasars visible all the way out to solar system plane or the stars in the Milky Way inhibited its growth.
the edge of the visible universe. Decades later disk. Because the age of the stars near SgrA* is At the current location of the sun, terrestrial life
astronomers found that almost every galaxy hosts less than a percent of the age of the Milky Way is safe from XUV flares of SgrA*. Recent studies
a supermassive black hole at its center, which is galaxy, major accretion episodes from disruption indicate, however, that the birthplace of the sun
starved most of the time but bursts sporadically of gas clouds must have occurred at least 100 may have been significantly closer to the galactic
for merely tens of millions of years during each times around SgrA*, based on the Copernican center and that the sun migrated to its current
burst. The quasars resemble a baby that tends to principle that the present time is not special. location through gravitational kicks. The exposure
remove food off the dining table as soon as it is Indeed, a pair of giant blobs of hot gas, called the to past XUV flares from SgrA* at closer distances
fed by virtue of becoming too energetic. Fermi bubbles, are observed to emanate from the could have harmed complex life during the early
In 2020 the Nobel Prize in Physics was galactic center along the rotation axis of the evolution of Earth. This might explain why the
awarded to Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel for Milky Way, implying a recent accretion episode oxygen level in Earth’s atmosphere
providing conclusive evidence that a black hole, around SgrA* that could have powered them. rose to its currently high level only after two
albeit starved at the present time, lurks also at Theoretical calculations imply that in addition to billion years, perhaps only after Earth was suffi-
the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. This disruption of massive gas clouds, individual stars ciently far away from SgrA*. In collaboration with
monster, weighing four million suns, is dormant are also scattered into the vicinity of the black Manasvi Lingam, I am currently exploring this
right now, glowing as the feeble radio source hole and get tidally disrupted once every 10,000 possible connection between terrestrial life and
Sagittarius A* (abbreviated SgrA*), which is a years. The intense feeding from the resulting the migration of the sun away from the galactic
billion times fainter than it would have been if it debris streams could lead to the brightest flares center.
was fed as generously as a quasar. from SgrA*. Such tidal disruption events of stars Traditionally, the sun was thought to be the only
Even though SgrA* is dim right now, we have are in fact observed in other galaxies at the astronomical source of light that affected life on
clues that it must have experienced episodes of expected rate. Earth. But it is also possible that the black hole
vigorous feeding in the past. This is not a sur- Would the resulting flares of SgrA* have any SgrA* played an important role in shaping the
prise, given that a gas cloud approaching the implications for life on Earth? In principle, they history of terrestrial life. A surprising realization of
galactic center or a star passing within 10 times could because they carry damaging x-ray and this sort is similar to figuring out that a stranger
the horizon scale of SgrA* (which translates to ultraviolet (XUV) radiation. In collaboration might have impacted your family history before
roughly the Earth-sun separation), would get with my former postdoc, John Forbes, we you were born. If a link between SgrA* and
spaghettified by the strong gravitational tide there showed in 2018 that the XUV radiation emitted terrestrial life can be established, then this
and turn into a stream of gas that triggers a during such flares would have the capacity to supermassive black hole might trigger a second
quasarlike flare. evaporate the atmosphere of Mars or Earth Nobel Prize.

➦ 43
 OPINION Ian Durham is a professor and chair of the physics department at St. Anselm College.
Daniel Garisto is a freelance science journalist covering advances in physics and other natural sciences.
His writing has appeared in Nature News, Science News, Undark, and elsewhere.
Karoline Wiesner is an associate professor in the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol in
England.

POLICY & ETHICS

Physicists Need
to Be More Careful
with How They
Name Things
The popular term “quantum supremacy,”
which refers to quantum computers
outperforming classical ones, is uncomfortably
reminiscent of “white supremacy”

I
n 2012 quantum physicist John Preskill wrote,
“We hope to hasten the day when well controlled
quantum systems can perform tasks surpassing
what can be done in the classical world.” Less
than a decade later two quantum computing sys-
tems have met that mark: Google’s Sycamore and
the University of Science and Technology of Chi-
na’s Jiǔzhāng. Both solved narrowly designed
problems that are, so far as we know, impossible
for classical computers to solve quickly. How
quickly? How “impossible”? To solve a problem
that took Jiǔzhāng 200 seconds, even the fastest

GETTY IMAGES
supercomputers are estimated to take at least two
billion years.
Describing what then may have seemed a

44
 OPINION

far-­­off goal, Preskill gave it a name: “quantum that quantum computers will soon make classical is a conversation that needs to happen. As things
supremacy.” In a blog post at the time, he ex- computers obsolete. Tamer alternatives such as stand, “quantum supremacy” can come across as
plained “I’m not completely happy with this term, “quantum advantage,” “quantum computational adding insult to injury.
and would be glad if readers could suggest supremacy” and even “quantum ascendancy” have The nature of quantum computing and its broad
something better.” been proposed, but none have managed to interest to the public outside of industry laborato-
We’re not happy with it either, and we believe supplant Preskill’s original term. More jargony ries and academia mean that the debate around
that the physics community should be more proposals like “Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum “quantum supremacy” was inevitably going to be
careful with its language, for both social and computing” (NISQ) and tongue-in-cheek sugges- included in the broader culture war.
scientific reasons. Even in the abstruse realms tions like “quantum non-uselessness” have similarly In 2019 a short correspondence to Nature
of matter and energy, language matters because failed to displace “supremacy.” argued that the quantum computing community
physics is done by people. Here we propose an alternative we believe should adopt different terminology to avoid “over-
The word “supremacy”—having “more power, succinctly captures the scientific implications with tones of violence, neocolonialism and racism.”
authority or status than anyone else”—is closely less hype and—crucially—no association with Within days the dispute was picked up by the
linked to “white supremacy.” This isn’t supposition; racism: quantum primacy. conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street
it’s fact. The Corpus of Contemporary American What’s in a name? It’s not just that quantum Journal, which attacked “quantum wokeness” and
English finds “white supremacy” is 15 times more supremacy by any other name would smell sweet- suggested that changing the term would be a
frequent than the next most commonly used er. By making the case for quantum primacy, we slippery slope all the way down to canceling Diana
two-word phrase, “judicial supremacy.” Although hope to illustrate some of the social and sci­­- Ross’ s “The Supremes.”
English is the global lingua franca of science, it is entific issues at hand. In President Joe Biden’s Linguist Steven Pinker weighed in to argue that
notable that the USTC team avoided “quantum letter to his science adviser, biologist Eric Lander, “the prissy banning of words by academics should
supremacy” because in Chinese, the character he asks “How can we ensure that Americans of all be resisted. It dumbs down understanding of
meaning “supremacy” also has uncomfortable, backgrounds are drawn into both the creation and language: word meanings are conventions, not
negative connotations. The problem is not confined the rewards of science and technology?” One small spells with magical powers, and all words have
merely to English. change can be in the language we use. GitHub, for multiple senses, which are distinguished in context.
White supremacist movements have grown example, abandoned the odious “master/slave” Also, it makes academia a laughingstock, tars the
around the globe in recent years, especially in the terminology after pressure from activists. innocent, and does nothing to combat actual
U.S., partly as a racist backlash to the Black Lives Were physics, computer science and engineer- racism & sexism.”
Matter movement. As Preskill has recently ac- ing more diverse, perhaps we would not still be It is true that “supremacy” is not a magic word,
knowledged, the word unavoidably “evokes a having this discussion, which one of us wrote about that its meaning comes from convention, not
repugnant political stance.” four years ago. But in the U.S., when only 2 percent conjurers. But the context of “quantum supremacy,”
“Quantum supremacy” has also become a of bachelor’s degrees in physics are awarded to which Pinker neglects, is that of a historically white,
buzzword in popular media (for example, here and Black students, when Latinos make up less than male-dominated discipline. Acknowledging this by
here). Its suggestion of domination may have 7 percent of engineers, and women account for a seeking better language is a basic effort to be
contributed to unjustified hype, such as the idea mere 12 percent of full professors in physics, this polite, not prissy.

45
 OPINION

Perhaps the most compelling argument raised er might factor a 100-digit number in seconds,
in favor of “quantum supremacy” is that it could but a 1,000-digit number would take billions of
function to reclaim the word. Were “quantum years. A quantum computer running Shor's
supremacy” 15 times more common than “white algorithm could do it in an hour.
supremacy,” the shoe would be on the other foot. When quantum computers can effectively do
Arguments for reclamation, however, must things that are impossible for classical computers,
account for who is doing the reclaiming. If the they have something much more than an advan-
charge to take back “quantum supremacy” were tage. We believe primacy captures much of this
led by Black scientists and other underrepresent- meaning. Primacy means “preeminent position” or
ed minorities in physics, that would be one thing. “the condition of being first.” Additionally, it shares
No survey exists, but anecdotal evidence sug- a Latin root (primus, or “first”) with mathematical
gests this is decidedly not the case. terms such as prime and primality.
To replace “supremacy,” we need to have a While quantum computers may be first to solve
thoughtful conversation. Not any alternative will a specific problem, that does not imply they will
do, and there is genuinely tricky science at stake. dominate; we hope quantum primacy helps avoid
Consider the implications of “quantum advan- the insinuation that classical computers will be
tage.” An advantage might be a stepladder that obsolete. This is especially important because
makes it easier to reach a high shelf or a small quantum primacy is a moving target. Classical
head start in a race. Some quantum algorithms computers and classical algorithms can and do
are like this. Grover’s search algorithm is only improve, so quantum computers will have to get
quadratically faster than its classical counterpart, bigger and better to stay ahead.
so a quantum computer running Grover’s algo- These kinds of linguistic hot fixes do not reach
rithm might solve a problem that took classical even a bare minimum for diversifying science; the
computers 100 minutes in the square root of that most important work involves hiring and retention
time—10 minutes. Not bad! That’s definitely an and actual material changes to the scientific
advantage, especially as runtimes get longer, but community to make it less white and male. But if
it doesn’t compare to some quantum speedups. opposition to improving the language of science is
Perhaps the most famous quantum speedup any indication about broader obstacles to diversify-
comes from Shor's algorithm, which can find the ing it, this is a conversation we must have.
factors of numbers (for example, 5 and 3 are Physicists may prefer vacuums for calculation,
factors of 15) almost exponentially faster than but science does not occur in one. It is situated in
the best classical algorithms. While classical the broader social and political landscape, one that
computers are fine with small numbers, every both shapes and is shaped by the decisions
digit takes a toll. For example, a classical comput- of researchers.

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