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When you think of an alien, you may be mistaken for a flying saucer, not an amorphous, cigar-shaped hunk of rock hurtling through our solar system.
Scientists studying the mysterious interstellar object 'Oumuamua, did not make that connection or until Avi Loeb, chair of Harvard's astronomy department, suggests it. Loeb is not backing down.
'Oumuamua, Hawaiian name that roughly means "first distant messenger," is an asteroid first discovered on Oct. 19, 2017, and it's been ever since puzzling researchers. Not only was its trajectory unlike anything previously encountered, but it displayed some strange behavior that made it difficult to classify. Observers first classified as a comet, but it was soon changed to an asteroid because there was no coma, the glowing "envelope" surrounding the body of the comet due to the sublimation of the ice caused by the sun. Researchers later changed it to a comet because the object displayed strange accelerations that could not be explained by gravity alone, indicating that something must come out of the comet.
Loeb offers an alternative explanation that would not be answerable to the questions about 'Oumuamua, if it was not so implausible. According to Loeb's paper, the object is a piece of debris from a destroyed alien probe powered by a theoretical solar sail, a propulsion technology based on the idea of harnessing the radiation emitted by stars. Over time, a solar sail could generate a solar system.
'Oumuamua could be busted up alien probe gliding through space on a solar sail, or it could be an unexplainable low-activity comet. There is no way of verifying either way, because 'Oumuamua has long since left our solar system. In fact, because of its proposed size and shape, we could not get a good photo.
The world is still alive, the debate over its classification remains, and a year later, is still going strong. Loeb's theory has taken the media by storm, the spread of rumors and sensationalist content.
Predictably, astronomers are not thrilled about this. ace Benjamin Weiner of the University of Arizona in tweet this past Wednesday, Loeb's speculation is a disservice to the scientific community. In a time when science is often in the news (think about global warming deniers), these frustrations are understandable.
Whatever you may think about 'Oumuamua, its brief visit reminds us all that the universe is astoundingly wide, and that we are but a single speck of dust in a cosmic ocean. Who knows? Maybe there are aliens out there, launching more probes as we speak.
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