3 ms·
If that is a discarded lightsail, maybe it's payload is right now decelerating towards Sol. THAT would be something (pun intended).
by motoboi 8y ago
If that is a discarded lightsail, maybe it's payload is right now decelerating towards Sol. THAT would be something (pun intended).
- scj 8y agoWhat if it's payload contains an AI in a tiny container rather than a biological being?
- Ftuuky 8y agoLike in the book Accelerando? Advanced civilizations might want to send digital copies of their astronauts, to keep the operation light and lean.
- avian 8y agoMy understanding is that the authors of the paper were speculating that this object might be debris from an encounter with another star that later flew by our sun by mere coincidence. As far as I can see, the observed hyperbolic trajectory doesn't seem consistent with a scenario where the target of the sail's payload would be our solar system.