4 ms·
I'm not saying it was - but what if Oumuamua was some kind of "derelict" - an intergalactic equivalent of the "Mary Celeste" - a ghost ship from deep space? Im
by cr0sh 7y ago
I'm not saying it was - but what if Oumuamua was some kind of "derelict" - an intergalactic equivalent of the "Mary Celeste" - a ghost ship from deep space?
Imagine a civilization that is maybe 500 years more advanced than ours in space travel - perhaps they have nearly conquered their solar system. Instead of building ships the regular way, they instead carve up asteroids or other similar "space rocks" and attach engines to them in some way. But something went wrong - maybe the engines got stuck "on" or something, and the entire thing was launched out beyond their system, never to be seen by them again...
...and it floated for however many of our millenia before briefly tumbling through our system. To us, it looks like a rock - we can't even optically resolve it properly, it's too fast and too far away. In (fantasy) reality, though, on board is a bunch of technology that we could probably understand, that would allow us to "leap" to hands-on human exploration (and exploitation) of our own solar system.
It might be both a blessing and a curse.
Again - sheer fantasy - and most likely it was just a shard of rock and nothing more. But is it far fetched to think that there isn't "large scale" ships or probes of some nature just drifting through space, probably completely broken down and relatively inert, moving at sub-light speeds due to various reasons, but made out of rock because it's easy to get, provides relatively good protection from space, easy to modify, etc?
We humans have already flung tiny objects out of our solar system - I can believe that larger artifacts might be something that could "drift away" as well (then again, one would think that if a civilization got to that level - they'd be able to go out and retrieve it before it got too far away).
Maybe it'd make a good science fiction story - from both ends (the creation of the "ship", the "loss" after trying to retrieve it, then the journey and the eventual discovery of it by another civilization "far away" - and how it changes the discoverers socially, politically, and technologically).
- elorant 7y agoEven if Oumuamua was a probe how would that explain the second interstellar sucker we're discussing here? The closest star system that could harbor life is 4 light years away. So even if Oumuamua signaled home that it found a planet with little brown beings it would take them at least 8 years to send a second probe. Oumuamua was detected just two years ago.
- sandworm101 7y ago>> The closest star system that could harbor life is 4 light years away. Under the conclusion that space-born civilization would remain around stars. If we one day tap into other energy sources, ie whatever is powering dark energy, stars may become irrelevant or even awkward to be around. A civilization of kilometer-wide cities could be just beyond Pluto and still totally outside our perceptions.
- elorant 7y agoIn which case you don't need to send probes hundreds of meters long. You'd send something much more compact and undetectable. You don't have to worry for probe's longevity so to enclose it inside an asteroid since you're launching from relatively shorter distances. Oumuamua as an alien probe sounds probable. Two of them in a span of two years, not so much. Besides contrary to Oumuamua this one has all the characteristics of a comet.
- sliken 7y agoYou are assuming that the civilization that sent it is trying to be stealthy. Not to mention at only 60,000 mph (Oumuamua) or 90,000 mph (C/2019 Q4) these probes need to be designed for many 100,000 years of travel if not millions. During that time they will see quasars, supernovas, and a wide variety of high energy particles. Might well make more sense to have many feet of rock as shielding instead of trying to keep a high power energy source going for that long. If you are patient gravity assisted slingshots makes quite a bit of sense.
- elorant 7y agoAnd how does a second probe in a two year span fits this theory? If you send out probes with the intention to crawl the galaxy for hundreds of thousands of years then the chances of two of them entering the same region in a two year timespan are nonexistent.
- 7y ago