5 ms·

I'll ask what everyone is thinking but won't say. If the acceleration is in fact being caused by artificial thrusters, what kind of thruster configuration can p

I'll ask what everyone is thinking but won't say. If the acceleration is in fact being caused by artificial thrusters, what kind of thruster configuration can produce prograde acceleration while maintaining the observed tumble? And why would someone engineer this configuration?

kranner 8y ago
> And why would someone engineer this configuration? To make its being engineered seem implausible, surely.
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago
  You're saying instead of magic cloaking devices, the aliens used camouflage? Makes sense to me!
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  Because it wasn't an important project so they made the fresh put of college ME do it.
TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
It's maybe worth pointing out the tumbling is a hypothesis used to explain variable brightness measurements and not something that was observed directly. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.00437.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.00437.pdf For all anyone knows the intrinsic brightness was variable. (This is probably not very likely without some supporting spectroscopic anomalies. But still.) As for thrusters - that's the same problem as the comet and outgassing hypothesis. No known mechanism can explain the acceleration. And if you were alien race and wanted to look at a planetary system without attracting attention, something that looks like a tumbling rock with a plausibly improbable trajectory would be ideal. It could just be a coincidence that the first large proven extra-solar object slingshotted around the Sun in a way that happened to pass close by the Earth. But considering the size of the Solar System and the convenient phasing of the Earth's orbit, what are the odds? It's certainly very curious.
- checkyoursudo 8y ago
  If aliens could do this to make the object look inconspicuous, then why not make it look not suspicious as well? Someone just f'ed up the config files?
  - tazjin 8y ago
    Who knows what kinds of things are flying through "their" systems? Maybe this thing is the most not suspicious object they could imagine ;-)
  - rdtsc 8y ago
    They deployed on a Friday. They should have known better :-) Sorry couldn't resist and hey, it's also Friday today. I wonder if it was aliens and they made it just slightly interesting without making it look completely obvious. Then they'd monitor and see how we would react. Would we be able to detect. Would we go chase it? Beam microwaves at it. Do we have the capability to fire projectiles at it.
    - checkyoursudo 8y ago
      So you're saying it's possibly an interstellar alien cat toy to test our curiosity and willpower? Plausible.
- drewrv 8y ago
  The odds that the first extra-solar object found is close to earth is really high, because they're easier to see if they're close.
basch 8y ago
couldnt a thruster at its axis spin in the opposite direction to offset? some crude nonsense - https://i.imgur.com/8jj2hWy.png https://i.imgur.com/8jj2hWy.png

kranner 8y ago

> And why would someone engineer this configuration? To make its being engineered seem implausible, surely.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago
You're saying instead of magic cloaking devices, the aliens used camouflage? Makes sense to me!
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
Because it wasn't an important project so they made the fresh put of college ME do it.

TheOtherHobbes 8y ago

It's maybe worth pointing out the tumbling is a hypothesis used to explain variable brightness measurements and not something that was observed directly. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.00437.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.00437.pdf For all anyone knows the intrinsic brightness was variable. (This is probably not very likely without some supporting spectroscopic anomalies. But still.) As for thrusters - that's the same problem as the comet and outgassing hypothesis. No known mechanism can explain the acceleration. And if you were alien race and wanted to look at a planetary system without attracting attention, something that looks like a tumbling rock with a plausibly improbable trajectory would be ideal. It could just be a coincidence that the first large proven extra-solar object slingshotted around the Sun in a way that happened to pass close by the Earth. But considering the size of the Solar System and the convenient phasing of the Earth's orbit, what are the odds? It's certainly very curious.

checkyoursudo 8y ago
If aliens could do this to make the object look inconspicuous, then why not make it look not suspicious as well? Someone just f'ed up the config files?
- tazjin 8y ago
  Who knows what kinds of things are flying through "their" systems? Maybe this thing is the most not suspicious object they could imagine ;-)
- rdtsc 8y ago
  They deployed on a Friday. They should have known better :-) Sorry couldn't resist and hey, it's also Friday today. I wonder if it was aliens and they made it just slightly interesting without making it look completely obvious. Then they'd monitor and see how we would react. Would we be able to detect. Would we go chase it? Beam microwaves at it. Do we have the capability to fire projectiles at it.
  - checkyoursudo 8y ago
    So you're saying it's possibly an interstellar alien cat toy to test our curiosity and willpower? Plausible.
drewrv 8y ago
The odds that the first extra-solar object found is close to earth is really high, because they're easier to see if they're close.

basch 8y ago

couldnt a thruster at its axis spin in the opposite direction to offset? some crude nonsense - https://i.imgur.com/8jj2hWy.png https://i.imgur.com/8jj2hWy.png