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Interstellar object may have been an alien probe, Harvard paper claims
- yesenadam 8y agoWell, the paper[0] spends ~98% of the time not claiming that. I think I thought those pictures of it were what it looked like! but "The large variations on the light curves indicate that ʻOumuamua is a highly elongated object... However, the size and shape have not been directly observed as ʻOumuamua appears as nothing more than a point source of light even in the most powerful telescopes. Neither the albedo or triaxial ellipsoid shape are precisely known."[1] [0] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua
- jaclaz 8y ago>Well, the paper[0] spends ~98% of the time not claiming that. Still it does say that, and the actual 2% remaining and actually stating the possibilty of it being an alien ship of some kind is essentially coming from the "set of educated and random guesses" (it is difficult to call them anything else, though officially it is called "Observations") published on Scientific American blogs (and cited as if they were a scientific paper): https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-to-search-for-dead-cosmic-civilizations/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-to-sea... by Abraham Loeb (chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University) Probably they should add a "Giorgio's Edition" to the department name ....
- JoeAltmaier 8y agoMaybe it was sent out by a dinosaur civilization, and is just now returning! How sad, that the authors disappeared epochs ago and were not here to extract the secrets of the galaxy...
- methodover 8y agoCrazy idea— A new NASA program designed to intercept “interesting” asteroids like this one. The next time one shows up we could actually check it out.
- nunobrito 8y agoWasn't a probe. Was supposed to be the beginning scene of Starship Troppers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEFOXlyufUE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEFOXlyufUE
- mud_dauber 8y agoI was really hoping this object would have been named Rama. Arthur C. Clarke would have approved.