Is the first "tourist" of the solar system a spaceship?

The first interstellar object of the solar system could be a veil of artificial light sent to look for signs of life, it was said.

In a study published Thursday, astronomers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics published their observations of an interstellar object called "Oumuamua".

According to scientists, the rock – which is the first observed of another system to penetrate our star system – received an unexpected acceleration through the internal solar system last year.

Because the object appears to have qualities badociated with both asteroids and comets, astronomers have badumed that its unusual acceleration might be the result of a 'artificial light sail' pushed by the solar radiation.

The study entitled "Could the solar radiation pressure explain the particular acceleration of Oumuamua?" Was conducted by Shmuel Bialy, researcher at the CfA Institute of Theory and Computation and by Professor Abraham Loeb, ITC Director, Frank B Baird Jr Professor of Science at the University Harvard.

Astronomers wrote: "Considering an artificial origin, it is possible that" Oumuamua is a light sail floating in interstellar space as a debris of advanced technological equipment ".

The asteroid was spotted for the first time by the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii on October 19th.

The strange cigar shape of the object and its unusual behavior led many people to badume that it could be a foreign artifact.

The past year since the debate in the scientific community on the question of whether Oumuamua is a comet or an asteroid. The object seemed to accelerate when he left the solar system – suggesting that he had omitted materials from his surface after being heated by the Sun in a manner consistent with with a comet.

However, as he did not follow a similar process to the approach of the Sun, Bialy and Loeb argue that it is a light sail, a form Spacecraft that relies on radiation pressure to generate propulsion. Loeb told 'Universe Today': "Oumuamua could be an active part of extraterrestrial technology coming to explore our solar system.

"The alternative is to imagine that Oumuamua was on a reconnaissance mission. The badumption that Oumumua followed a random orbit requires the production of such objects by star in our galaxy. "

Karen Meech, astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii and co-author of the study, suggests that the dust grains on the surface of most comets had eroded during of Oumuamua's voyage into interstellar space.