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Harvard Researchers Suggest Interstellar Object Might Have Been From Alien Civilization (bostonglobe.com)
A strange interstellar object that invaded our solar system and passed close to Earth in the fall of 2017 could have been an artificial object, a piece of a spacecraft from an alien civilization, Harvard researchers are suggesting in a new paper [PDF]. From a report: "There is data on the orbit of this object for which there is no other explanation. So we wrote this paper suggesting this explanation," said Professor Avi Loeb, chairman of the Harvard astronomy department. "The approach I take to the subject is purely scientific and evidence-based. As far as I know, there is no other explanation. You can rule it out or in, based on additional data." He said the study had been accepted for publication in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Nov. 12.
The paper, written by Loeb and postdoctoral researcher Shmuel Bialy, suggests the object might be a light sail, or solar sail -- a proposed method of powering spacecraft that uses a sail to catch radiation pressure and propel the spacecraft, just as a normal sail uses the wind to propel a boat. The object 'Oumuamua -- Hawaiian for "messenger from afar arriving first" -- is the first ever observed intruding in the orbits of our planets. It was picked up by telescopes in October 2017 at the University of Hawaii's Haleakala Observatory, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. It is on its way out of the solar system and expected to never return. Scientists say other "interstellar" objects may have sailed by in the past, undetected.
The object raised eyebrows. It was monitored for signs of radio signals as weak as one-tenth of a cellphone-strength signal, but nothing was detected. Researchers said in December 2017 that it appeared to be a naturally formed, icy object covered with a dry crust. Further reading: Interstellar Visitor 'Oumuamua Is a Comet After All (June 2018), Scientists say mysterious 'Oumuamua' object could be an alien spacecraft, and Cigar-shaped interstellar object may have been an alien probe, Harvard paper claims.
The paper, written by Loeb and postdoctoral researcher Shmuel Bialy, suggests the object might be a light sail, or solar sail -- a proposed method of powering spacecraft that uses a sail to catch radiation pressure and propel the spacecraft, just as a normal sail uses the wind to propel a boat. The object 'Oumuamua -- Hawaiian for "messenger from afar arriving first" -- is the first ever observed intruding in the orbits of our planets. It was picked up by telescopes in October 2017 at the University of Hawaii's Haleakala Observatory, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. It is on its way out of the solar system and expected to never return. Scientists say other "interstellar" objects may have sailed by in the past, undetected.
The object raised eyebrows. It was monitored for signs of radio signals as weak as one-tenth of a cellphone-strength signal, but nothing was detected. Researchers said in December 2017 that it appeared to be a naturally formed, icy object covered with a dry crust. Further reading: Interstellar Visitor 'Oumuamua Is a Comet After All (June 2018), Scientists say mysterious 'Oumuamua' object could be an alien spacecraft, and Cigar-shaped interstellar object may have been an alien probe, Harvard paper claims.
If it deployed a light sail upon leaving the solar system, the sail would be reflecting sunlight back at us now. A sail big enough to accelerate an object of that size would be visible.
Also, the closer you get to the galactic center the more volatile to life the environment gets. As such, life has more time to grow and advance the further one is from the galactic core
That's quite an assumption. A more violent environment (assuming you meant violent and not volatile) might also be a driving force behind faster evolution.
For example, on earth the great extinctions actually sped up the evolution. Without them (or better: in between them) evolution went relative slow.
Of course, you don't want a bunch of supernova's and gamma rays ionizing any atom on the planet all the time, but a more `challenging` environment might as well speed up evolution instead of slowing it down. We just don't know yet until we increase our current sample size of 1.
(posting as anon as i modded a bit in the topic already)
How far is SpaceX away from being able to cobble up a flyby probe to at least get a close look at this object?
I haven't been keeping a count, but I do read the daily listings of new papers on Arxiv and I'm more or less up to date (one submission on my desktop at this time) there have been on the order of a dozen proposals from various sources trying various models of tholin/ dust crusting the surface of 'Oumuamua. While it's not exactly an exciting position to take, it is a consensus position.
Do your own homework. I have, to match the extent that I care about the topic.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"