Alien probe? – Iqsoft Unhackable Blog

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(CNN)A mysterious cigar-shaped object spotted tumbling through our solar system last year may have been an alien spacecraft sent to investigate Earth, astronomers from Harvard University have suggested.The object, nicknamed ‘Oumuamua, meaning “a messenger that reaches out from the distant past” in Hawaiian, was discovered in October 2017 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.Since its discovery, scientists have been at odds to explain its unusual features and precise origins, with researchers first calling it a comet and then an asteroid before finally deeming it the first of its kind: a new class of “interstellar objects.”A new paper by researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics raises the possibility that the elongated dark-red object, which is 10 times as long as it is wide and traveling at speeds of 196,000 mph, might have an “artificial origin.””‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization,” they wrote in the paper, which has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters.International Asteroid Day: Are we ready if an asteroid strikes Earth?The theory is based on the object’s “excess acceleration,” or its unexpected boost in speed as it traveled through and ultimately out of our solar system in January.”Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that ‘Oumuamua is a light sail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment,” wrote the paper’s authors, suggesting that the object could be propelled by solar radiation.The paper was written by Abraham Loeb, professor and chair of astronomy, and Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral scholar, at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The light-sail technology might be abundantly used for transportation of cargos between planets or between stars.”In the paper, the pair theorize that the object’s high speed and its unusual trajectory could be the result of it no longer being operational.Meet ‘Oumuamua, the first observed interstellar visitor to our solar system“This would account for the various anomalies of ‘Oumuamua, such as the unusual geometry inferred from its light-curve, its low thermal emission, suggesting high reflectivity, and its deviation from a Keplerian orbit without any sign of a cometary tail or spin-up torques.”‘Oumuamua is the first object ever seen in our solar system that is known to have originated elsewhere.At first, astronomers thought the rapidly moving faint light was a regular comet or an asteroid that had originated in our solar system.Comets, in particular, are known to speed up due to “outgassing,” a process in which the sun heats the surface of the icy comet, releasing melted gas. Even if it was left deployed the dust accumulation would be primarily on the leading side like bugs on a windshield.”‘Oumuamua also travels in a complex tumbling spin, but a functioning solar sail would have a much smoother path and obvious radiation-driven acceleration, Jackson said. So far, there is no obvious origin for ‘Oumuamua.”Beyond that, it becomes difficult to trace because of the motion of the stars and any hypothetical alien civilisation would face the same issue in charting a course that long in the first place (aside from arguments about whether they would want to launch a craft they knew would not reach its destination for many millions of years),” Jackson said.Concerning ‘Oumuamua, there is little evidence because astronomers weren’t able to observe it for long, which opens it up to speculation in the name of science.”The thing you have to understand is: scientists are perfectly happy to publish an outlandish idea if it has even the tiniest ‘sliver’ of a chance of not being wrong,” astrophysicist and cosmologist Katherine Mack tweeted. “But until every other possibility has been exhausted dozen times over, even the authors probably don’t believe it.” The thing you have to understand is: scientists are perfectly happy to publish an outlandish idea if it has even the tiniest *sliver* of a chance of not being wrong.

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