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The first object to visit us from another star system could be a spacecraft


Image for article titled First object to visit us from another star system could be a spacecraft

You know scientists: They give the most interesting explanation possible to the public and then act like nerds and put out a newspaper years later saying something much more mundane . And that was with the first object to enter our solar system from somewhere else. Dubbed “Oumuamua,” scientists are still debating what the mysterious object might be, and surprisingly the most interesting possible explanation – an alien spacecraft – remains. many more things.

Oumuamua, or “messenger” in the native Hawaiian language, was spotted streaking across the lens of an active island for the first time. observatory In 2017. It is clear from its speed and orbit that Oumuamua came from outside the solar system, and it was ejected again after orbiting the sun.

This gave scientists a very limited amount of time to study Oumuamua. Immediately, researchers were excited to be the first to observe an object from outside the solar system making a detour around our neighborhood. Initially, a comet was submerged, it was later classified as some type of asteroid because of the absence of a coma – a halo of dust, gas, and water vapor covering the comet’s core.

But that doesn’t seem quite right either. For five years, astronomers have been trying to better define Oumuamua based on the limited information available, but have failed to state with certainty whether it is one or the other. Could it be something more? A clever design craft of some sort?

A new study published by Chinese researchers in Astronomy and Astrophysics Wednesday reduced the likelihood that Oumuamua was a ship because its luminance during its luminous periods was not bright enough to indicate the propulsion of the photon light sail.

I’m no scientist, but that seems like a silly excuse to discount spaceship theory. First, while we on Earth think light sails – sails that capture photons to propel spacecraft in a similar fashion to a sailing ship – are cutting edge technology. science fiction has only recently been used in space exploration on Earth, aliens can travel between star systems perhaps something a little more advanced. Plus, Oumuamua seems to be using our sun as efficiently to launch rockets out of our solar system as it did when it launched. Is that part of its push strategy? To jump from star to star, using its gravity to shoot to distant points in our galaxy?

And Harvard physicist Avi Loeb agrees. Loeb said to Daily Beast that the spacecraft theory still holds water. Even the Chinese researchers of the original paper downplaying the alien’s perspective conceded that it could still be some sort of craft:

So when “ Oumuamua passed through the solar system, it should have been really bright at some point – and all but invisible at other times. And while `Oumuamua do brighter and darker in our opinion in its strange journey, it is not bright full, Shangfei said. “If it were a spotlight, the change in brightness would be much larger.”

But there is another explanation for Oumuamua’s “ relative opacity, says Loeb – and that is the shape of a sail. Chinese scientists think that, if “ Oumuamua were a sailing ship, it would have a smooth sail. A flat sail will reflect more light at its brightest times than a concave sail.

But the sail “doesn’t have to be flat,” explains Loeb. He indicated that he was working with the Breakthrough Initiative, a science startup founded by Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Borisovich, on umbrella-shaped sails as part of the project. The initiative’s Starshot space probe.

The whole argument about the shape of a sail can actually be an argument. Shangfei admits: “ Oumuamua could be a spaceship “in a different form”. In other words, it might not have a sail — and could instead rely on some other type of propulsion system.

I don’t think other scientists will have to ask their colleagues to use a little more imagination but I guess it will. All I’m saying is, it might not be a spaceship, but wouldn’t it be much cooler if it were? Come on you.



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