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Scientists continue to wonder about last year's interstellar visitor, Oumuamua, and the latest theory will surely excite UFO enthusiasts. According to a new article published by astronomers from Harvard University, the gigantic cigar-shaped rock that rocked into our solar system in October 2017 had strange properties suggesting that it was a problem. An extraterrestrial spaceship. And while Oumuamua's unique physical properties have pushed some scientists to speculate on extraterrestrials, other scientists are neither convinced nor convinced of the effect of this conjecture.
"" Oumuamua is perhaps a fully operational probe, intentionally sent near Earth by an extraterrestrial civilization, "wrote authors Abraham Loeb, professor and president of astronomy, and Shmuel Bialy, postdoctoral researcher, all two at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
"Oumuamua, which is Hawaiian for" an object from afar, "was first observed by a University of Hawaii postdoctoral researcher who was reviewing the data flow from the Pan-STARRS sky astronomical survey. The researcher noticed that the object was very elongated, like a stick, with a long axis 10 times longer than its short axis. The researchers suggested that its shape would minimize abrasions from interstellar gases and dust, thus forming an ideal shape for an interstellar spacecraft. Then, in May, an article published in the Monthly Opinion of the Royal Astronomical Society suggested that "Oumuamua was heading towards our solar system as a result of a gravitational attack on a binary star system.
The researchers came to the last conclusion of another world by focusing on one of the most interesting properties of the rock: its unexpected acceleration trajectory after the passage of the sun, suggesting that it was propelled by light of the sun. As no sign of cometary activity has been observed – such as a comet tail or gas emission absorption lines -, Harvard researchers have dismissed the possibility that it's going to happen. Act of a comet.
"Oumuamua is moving away from a trajectory solely dictated by the gravity of the Sun," Loeb told Salon in a statement. "That could have been the result of a cometary degassing, but it does not. There is no evidence of a cometary tail around that, plus the comets are changing the period of their rotation and no such changes have been detected for "Oumuamua."
After developing the hypothesis using a mathematical model, the authors assume that the non-gravitational acceleration of Oumuamua was due to the pressure of solar radiation.
"The only other explanation that comes to my mind is the extra strength that Oumuamua is being exerted by the sun," Loeb told Salon. "For it to be effective, Oumuamua must be less than a millimeter thick, like a sail. This led us to think that it could be a light sail produced by an extraterrestrial civilization. "
Lightweight propulsion systems have been created on Earth and their origins date back to the 1970s, when NASA had the idea of launching a solar sail to Halley's Comet. The project was canceled, but the Planetary Society, a non-profit organization, has successfully implemented its own light-powered spacecraft program.
Yet it is precisely this speculation that is causing a minor debate among scientists. Some researchers tell Salon the theory that "Oumuamua is an extraterrestrial lightweight sail is imperfect and is not in the scientific field, because it is indisputable.
"In science, we have to be very careful about our assumptions," said Salon Paul Sutter, an astrophysicist at Ohio State University. "My main criticism is that as soon as you introduce extraterrestrials as a hypothesis, you stop doing science because extraterrestrials are able to do whatever they want."
Sutter said that there was no way to test such a hypothesis.
"We are free to have any idea we want, and crazy ideas are welcome, but they need to be tested," Sutter said. "Since [aliens are] always available, you can never rule it out, that's why you can not do science with it. "
The uncertainty and strange behavior of Oumuamua have led researchers to speculate on an extraterrestrial origin, Sutter added, adding that scientists should be more patient or agree to never know what are the foreign rocks this time around.
"Our only hope is that" Oumuamua is not the only one on the market and that there are other random rocks that break in our solar system, and we hope to find the cousin or the great aunt of Oumuamua. " [next]," he said.
Seth Shostak, an experienced astronomer in search of extraterrestrial information (SETI), told Salon that the theory could be "an exotic solution to what could be a very mundane situation."
"It could be the solar sail of someone who has just been lost in our solar system or the one who deliberately targeted ours, [but] you can not say it's not true because there's no way to prove it's true, "Shostak told Salon.
Shostak added that if it was an extraterrestrial spacecraft that had been deliberately sent, it should be noted that it was not very close to the Earth.
"You'd think it would be an interesting target for them," he said. "He comes in, turns around the sun and leaves; it's like an interesting person who settles in the neighborhood, walks past your house and does not knock on the door or anything, so I do not have it.
Dr. Michael Wall, senior editor of Space.com and author of the upcoming book "Out There", said it was unlikely "that Umuamua is an alien spaceship, the possibility should not be totally ruled out.
"I do not think it's likely, but the extraterrestrials must almost be the last explanation," he said. "You must first exhaust all natural explanations, but I do not think that should be dismissed."
Since nothing like Oumuamua has been observed in our solar system, natural explanations could still be unknown to man.
"It's very likely that we do not have enough information and we probably will not," Wall said. "It's interesting, but it just shows that there is a narrow margin of maneuver between being too dismissive and too gullible."
In the end, this article has been the subject of much discussion among many scientists. Loeb told Salon that he did not expect the newspaper to attract so much attention.
"I'm happy to see the excitement aroused by the newspaper, but it has not been written for this purpose," Loeb said. "We have just followed the standard practice of scientific research."
Nicole Karlis
Nicole Karlis is a journalist at the Salon. It covers the areas of health, science, technology and gender. Tweet it @nicolekarlis.
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