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Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth (also known as Extraterrestrial) is a soon-to-be-published popular-science book written by American theoretical physicist Avi Loeb, scheduled for release by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on 26 January 2021. According to the book publisher, the author "outlines his controversial theory and its profound implications: for science, for religion, and for the future of our species and our planet ... A mind-bending journey through the furthest reaches of science, space-time, and the human imagination, Extraterrestrial challenges readers to aim for the stars—and to think critically about what’s out there, no matter how strange it seems.”

Contents
The book describes the 2017 detection of 'Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object passing through the Solar System. Loeb, book author and astronomer at Harvard University, suggests the object might possibly be from an alien civilization in a far distant star system. Earlier, Loeb demonstrated that the interstellar object was not an asteroid, was moving too fast in a very unusual orbit and left no gas trail or debris in its path. Loeb believes, due to the observed acceleration of the object near the sun, that 'Oumaumua may be a very thin disk that acts as a solar sail of some sort. Further, Loeb and colleagues demonstrated that the object was unlikely to be frozen hydrogen as proposed earlier by other researchers.

Besides 'Oumuamua, another interstellar object, 2I/Borisov, a comet, has been detected passing through the Solar System. In comparison, 2I/Borisov has been found to be clearly natural, whereas 'Oumuamua has not been so determined. Accordingly, the possibility that 'Oumauamua may be alien technology has not been entirely ruled out, although such an explanation is considered very unlikely by most scientists.

Reviews
According to American physicist Alan Lightman, writing in The New York Times, the book is "provocative and thrilling", and commends author Loeb for suggesting that readers "think big and to expect the unexpected”.