Harvard astronomer still believes interstellar object was alien technology

A prominent Harvard astronomer still spends a lot of time thinking about our first alien encounter in 2017. That’s when a mysterious object known as the Oumuamua passed through the solar system. Scientists have classified “ Oumuamua in different ways as an asteroid or a comet, but Avi Loeb, the chairman of Harvard’s astronomy department, thinks he really alien – a piece of alien technology that we mistook for a natural space rock.

Astronomers detected ‘Oumuamua in late 2017 as he glided through the solar system. Its speed and trajectory undoubtedly showed it was coming from outside the solar system, but what was it? It didn’t have a coma or a “tail” like a comet, but scientists eventually detected a small force pushing Oumuamua away from the sun. We attributed this to the release of gas from what was probably a very old comet. But was it? According to Loeb, who works as president of astronomy at Harvard, “Oumuamua had too many bizarre properties to be natural. Be thinks “Oumuamua is really alien, and we have to take this possibility seriously if we are to see the next one.”

Loeb is about to release a book called Extraterrestrial in the coming weeks that sets out his hypothesis, which includes convincing arguments. “Oumuamua remained unnoticed until he was already on the verge of exiting the solar system. So there was no way to intercept or capture high resolution photographs of the object. However, we do know that this is not a typical space rock. By our best estimate, “Oumuamua is cigar-shaped and is around 100 meters long. As Loeb points out, we’ve never seen a natural object that looks like this. “Oumuamua is also very reflective – around 10 times more than typical asteroids or comets. This could mean that its surface is made of shiny metal.

Oumuamua’s path through the solar system in 2017.

What Loeb finds most compelling is the aforementioned force that pulls Oumuamua away from the sun. He argues that the degassing theory does not sufficiently explain the facts; any jet of evaporating material powerful enough to displace “Oumuamua should have been visible from Earth. Because we only saw ‘Oumuamua so late in its transit of the solar system, it is possible that we could be wrong about the form as well. Loeb theorizes that “Oumuamua could be a disc less than a millimeter thick. Loeb thinks it’s possible “Oumuamua was, in fact, a sort of solar veil that accelerated due to its proximity to the sun.

It’s a fascinating idea, but we’ll probably never know if Loeb is right. “Oumuamua is already exiting the solar system and we have no way to catch up. Instead, Loeb wants to encourage scientists to take this possibility seriously and keep an eye out for similar objects so that we can collect more data. Astronomers have spotted another alien object after ‘Oumuamua, a comet known as 2I / Borisov. There is no uncertainty about Borisov’s natural origins, which makes Oumuamua seem much stranger.

Now read: