Mysterious interstellar asteroid could be a solar sail from wrecked alien probe, astronomers say
Published time: 3 Nov, 2018 05:11
Edited time: 3 Nov, 2018 09:07
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Mysterious interstellar asteroid could be a solar sail from wrecked alien probe, astronomers say
© Reuters / Handout
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Interstellar mystery rock Oumuamua might have been part of an alien reconnaissance mission, according to two Harvard Smithsonian astronomers who saw in the strange object signs it could be a light-driven probe.
As the strange rock moved out of our solar system last September, it sped up instead of slowing down as would be expected. Observers dismissed the acceleration as the result of a release of gas from within the rock, but astronomers Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb are rethinking the whole matter, reasoning that if Oumuamua had merely been a comet undergoing outgassing, the release would have set the object to spinning. Instead, it remained flat, and the astronomers believe that could be by design.

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Oumuamua could be "powered" by the force exerted on its surface by sunlight, Bialy and Loeb concluded. Such a means of "power" would allow, say, an alien probe to travel far into the universe with nothing but light needed to fuel it. While there's a possibility that the object is merely an abnormally thin, extremely large naturally-occurring piece of interstellar rock it didn't emit any radio signals detectable by human instruments they speculate that it could be a defunct light-sail, space detritus fallen from a long-gone ship.

READ MORE: Mysterious interstellar object to be scanned for alien tech as it flies through Solar system

Bialy and Loeb are serious about the possibility Oumuamua might have been deliberately constructed by extraterrestrials. Loeb calculated that for it to be a random object following a random orbit, there would have to be 100 million times more of its type hanging around in the solar system.

Their calculations also indicate that it's the perfect thickness to withstand collisions with space dust, gas, and planetary forces without adding so much mass to render it incapable of sailing. And it looks and acts a lot like the Starshot Initiative and the IKAROS project, both of which humans built to do pretty much the same thing the astronomers think Oumuamua was doing.
Posted on RetroBBS II

Could be good news for us. Maybe they can provide us with some technical solutions to prevent the extinction of our race by our own hands.
Or they couldbe monstrous creatures who want to kill/enslave us. Which could have a positive impact as well (thinking about Watchmen right now).

In any case, it should be interesting.

Posted on def4.i2p

The thing is supposed to look something like this (see pic).

Posted on def4.i2p

To: anon
Yeah I saw a pic earlier too. Strange shape, like it's broken off of
something.
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Posted on RetroBBS
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Posted on RetroBBS

well, that pic is artwork, not a photo.

i understand that they have some raw data, and tried to compute the rest.
from the dimensions they could actually measure they could deduct that the likelihood of such shape to be a result of random processes is extremely low.
on the other hand, the cosmos is extremely large, so it might still be something random...

Posted on def4.i2p