Let the Rampant Theorizing Begin!

So here it is...  We've gone from a Mo'ai to a sculpture of a "grey."  So, ladies and gentlemen, place yer bets here!

A bit of clarification:
1)  "Alien" in this regard means non-terrestrial in origin as well as residence.  Human off-worlders do not count.
2)  The UW means anyone working for the UW's interests as well, even independently.
3)  A practical joker means exactly that: someone who sculpted and launched these artifacts for the express purpose of making people come out and look for them, with no other agenda.
4)  "More nefarious purposes" include distracting the entirety of humanity by directing their attention away from something else, or possibly getting everyone capable of making the trip in range of an explosive within the second artifact, or anything else you can think of beyond merely getting people to look at the artifacts.

I'm leaning heavily towards 4, as the amount of time and energy - not to mention materials - involved in setting this up is way too much for a simple prank.  I have no idea what the nefarious scheme might be, but I guarantee a human hand behind this for a number of reasons, which I expect to be enumerated by characters in this superbly written comic before long.

Maybe, I'm a little too predictable but I'm going with number 1.  Here's a thought, the beings that produced the little gray alien statue got it so technically detailed maybe then the Moai statue is also really another type of alien that mankind has not seen for many centuries and it's also techincally detailed.  Remember the good aliens very early in the movie "the fifth element"?  It kind of does resemble them.  

So here it is...  We've gone from a Mo'ai to a sculpture of a "grey."  So, ladies and gentlemen, place yer bets here!

A bit of clarification:
1)  "Alien" in this regard means non-terrestrial in origin as well as residence.  Human off-worlders do not count.
2)  The UW means anyone working for the UW's interests as well, even independently.
3)  A practical joker means exactly that: someone who sculpted and launched these artifacts for the express purpose of making people come out and look for them, with no other agenda.
4)  "More nefarious purposes" include distracting the entirety of humanity by directing their attention away from something else, or possibly getting everyone capable of making the trip in range of an explosive within the second artifact, or anything else you can think of beyond merely getting people to look at the artifacts.

I'm leaning heavily towards 4, as the amount of time and energy - not to mention materials - involved in setting this up is way too much for a simple prank.  I have no idea what the nefarious scheme might be, but I guarantee a human hand behind this for a number of reasons, which I expect to be enumerated by characters in this superbly written comic before long.

There is another possibility you have not mentioned... though you might be sort of close on one of your speculations.

If this were not just a story my bullshit detector would be damned near pegged.  Too many coincidences; not enough data.  However this is a story so I'll just have to see how it unfolds.

I think it's pretty obvious what this is.

Ask yourself, what if this happened IRL, on Earth, today?

What if someone found a clearly manufactured artifact someplace they weren't expecting to find it?  

In a place which was easily accessible and open to the public, but which (apparently) just hadn't been thoroughly mapped, scanned, or colonized yet?  

And what if the artifacts could be easily manufactured with modern technology, but they explicitly reference some really interesting ancient enigma?

And what if each artifact included instructions on where to find the next artifact?  

What would you generally expect to find at the end of this trail of bread-crumbs?

And, oh look, it's in the media.

And participation in the artifact-hunt is spreading virally.

We've *never* seen anything like *that* before on Earth, have we?  

There is another possibility you have not mentioned... though you might be sort of close on one of your speculations.

The only other possibility I can think of is natural formation, which I left out because the odds of that are beyond diminishingly small.  So... what else am I missing?

And in response to Rocketman:

The reason for the widespread description of "greys" among people who claim to have been abducted by aliens is a factor of the way the human brain works.  While I have no doubt, personally, that aliens do exist elsewhere in the universe, based on the process of natural selection I find it incredibly hard to believe they would appear as large-headed, spindly targets for any predator they encounter.

I wrote an essay once upon a time about the likely physical attributes of aliens...  I'm trying to find it.  To summarize it, though, due to the processes of mutation and natural selection, your best bet for what an alien is going to look like is "roughly human."

I wrote an essay once upon a time about the likely physical attributes of aliens...  I'm trying to find it.  To summarize it, though, due to the processes of mutation and natural selection, your best bet for what an alien is going to look like is "roughly human."

I've always hated that common speculative theory.

We look the way we do because we're the best adapted, therefore the best adapted look like us.  It's circular logic, it strikes me as totally unscientific and possibly a sign that whoever thinks this was born without and imagination.

Hands with opposable thumbs are not even the best example of dexterity on earth.  I think an octopus with individual control of each suction cup wins that one.

Bipedism is not that great of a trait and limits us in many ways.

Dolphins are more socially evolved than we are, possibly even as intelligent; as if we knew what intelligence is.

Soldier ants have better military discipline than any human army.

Though only thing humans got that the rest of the planet don't got is tool making, but whose really to say that you need to have any of our traits to do that.

I think aliens will be nothing like anything we can even imagine.

The "grays" are something from the human subconscious, something that people use to deal with traumatizing events maybe.

The only other possibility I can think of is natural formation, which I left out because the odds of that are beyond diminishingly small.  So... what else am I missing?

You will carp with me when the answer reveals itself. You will say, "that's just a variant of number X!" However, I think it is separate enough to qualify as number 5. We have a ways to go, however, so keep the guesses coming!

Well it's definitely recent (at least relatively speaking).

The reasons for this are many fold.

1.) There are no pits, scars, or craters of any kind shown on either artifact. The asteroid belt is rife with collisions. Even Earth's moon which is not in the asteroid belt is covered with craters. The only reason EARTH is not covered with craters is that the natural processes of erosion and sedimentation (not to mention the flow of water) have erased most of them.

2.) The "writing" in the first artifact references a recent event. The Levi-Shumaker comet collision with Jupiter was a freak occurrence caused by an asteroid glancing the comet as to alter its path right into Jupiter. Unless the entity (ies) that carved these artifacts are genuine soothsayers, or have divine prophecy, there is no way to predict such an event with sufficient accuracy to plan the orbit of asteroid and planetoid sized objects in accordance with the event.

3.) Barring a truly ALIEN sentience, the technology required to carve these structures simply did not exist until recently in recorded history. (Considering Earth's violent tectonic and climatic past, they MAY have existed prior to recorded history and been forgotten. Like the technology to carve the rocks for Stonehenge has been forgotten.)

As for ruling out a prank, it is impossible to overestimate the depths to which humans will go when thrill seeking. Not too long ago, a group of seniors, as a prank, filmed themselves climbing in through the ceiling of the high school they attended and filled all the rooms (including the principal's office) with packing peanuts, to the point that the doors could not be opened.

And let's not forget the "crop circles." While a great many came forward and said "this is how we did it," a great many more come back "just because you can make a counterfeit $20 bill, does not mean all $20 bills are counterfeit" and still believe that they're a message from "aliens."

I'm leaning, or would have been leaning, heavily towards 3. One possibility technically not covered by the list, though, would be something that falls under 4, except for being clearly beneficent rather than nefarious.

3)  A practical joker means exactly that: someone who sculpted and launched these artifacts for the express purpose of making people come out and look for them, with no other agenda.

Yeah, that "no other agenda" thing rules out a lot of things that I think seems quite likely. The theme suggests that someone had some fun doing it, but the scale suggests that there's more to it than just making people look at it. I suppose that it could be viral marketing? Or would that count as "nefarious"?

Yeah, this setup has "ad campaign" written all over it.  Now who A) has the resources to do this and B) has an upcoming product that needs maximum instant publicity so the UW can't suppress the news of it immediately?  I think we've run into him before...

I suppose that it could be viral marketing? Or would that count as "nefarious"?

Bingo.

And, yes. 

Quite nefarious, indeed.

Burma Shave.

Yeah, this setup has "ad campaign" written all over it.  Now who A) has the resources to do this and B) has an upcoming product that needs maximum instant publicity so the UW can't suppress the news of it immediately?  I think we've run into him before...

Oh, shiiiiii...   

Yeah, this setup has "ad campaign" written all over it.  Now who A) has the resources to do this and B) has an upcoming product that needs maximum instant publicity so the UW can't suppress the news of it immediately?  I think we've run into him before...

Good possibility.
The other thing I had in mind was that Schumacher-Levy was really the arrival of "jovian dwelling" aliens at Jupiter.