Is Oumuamua an asteroid? A strange explanation that extraterrestrials

The space object Oumuamua (Hawaiian for "scout" or "messenger") has attracted much attention of overheating during this week A Harvard scientist co-wrote an article suggesting that the interstellar visitor could have been an alien spaceship powered by solar radiation pressure.

In fact, the new document by Abraham Loeb and postdoctoral scholar Shmuel Bialy, who is following his path in the process of peer review and publication, seems to have attracted more attention than the discovery. original, in 2017, the first solar system of the afterlife.

Previously, research teams suggested Oumuamua could be a foreign probe and then used radio telescopes to scan for any signs of artificial signals. These observations are all negative. We will probably never be able to fully study Loeb and Bialy 's hypothesis because Oumuamua has been away from the Earth at very high speed for over a year now.

Astrophysicist and cosmologist Katie Mack (no relation) suspects that it is difficult to refute the theory of "it could be extraterrestrials" that could be part of the calculation behind the newspaper's publication.

"If you propose something in the category" not * obviously * false and also HUGE IF TRUE ", it is unlikely that its publication will turn against meaning, and the low probability of a high reward may be tempting enough for It's worth it to face the eyes of your colleagues, "commented Mack on the newspaper and the huge response he received.

So, if you propose something in the "not * obviously * false and also HUGE IF TRUE" category, the likelihood that its publication will turn against it is low, and the low probability high reward return can be quite tempting for the It's worth looking at the hidden eyes of your colleagues.

– Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) November 6, 2018

In other words, whenever something mysterious happens, that it is difficult or impossible to conduct follow-up studies, you can not completely exclude extraterrestrials as a plausible explanation. In addition, whenever extraterrestrials can be a plausible explanation, there is no doubt that someone intervenes and fills that void. This time, an astrophysicist and cosmologist from Harvard filled this void, which caused the convulsion of the Internet.

There is no real tangible evidence that Oumuamua is an extraterrestrial spacecraft – Loeb accidentally noticed that it was moving in the same way that we would expect a so-called "light sail" craft like this Starshot Revolutionary Initiative works to fly. (Loeb also chairs the Breakthrough Starshot Advisory Committee.)

Loeb and Bialy's document is one of literally literally Oumuamua. This is not the first to propose that the object can be artificial and this is not even the story story proposed the strangest proposed for the big cylinder or cigar interstellar, or what you believe it looks like. Here is a brief overview of other theories on the origin of Oumuamua.

The invisible universe made visible?

One of the older and more advanced explanations proposed by Oumuamua could actually be a big chunk of "macroscopic dark matter". Dark matter is the invisible material that forms a large part of the universe.

"Contrary to common misconceptions, dark matter does not have to be in the form of elementary particles in weak interaction, but can be found in much larger chunks," reads in a very short article written by scientists. Case Western Reserve University, Canada Perimeter Institute and Stanford. .

The researchers argue that if their hypothesis were true, the passage of Oumuamua could have changed the orbits of Mercury, the Earth and the Moon. Nobody has yet confirmed change to these planetary paths.

Here is a brief overview of other theories on the origin of Oumuamua.

Crumbs from another solar system

One of the most popular explanations of the origin of the creation of Oumuamua in the literature is the idea that it is left behind by the planetary formation process around the world. another distant star. Basically, just an interstellar asteroid from all over the cosmos.

It is believed that the early days of any solar system can be particularly turbulent and chaotic with debris everywhere and that some may even fall completely out of the system.

A recent study used new data to try to fine-tune exactly which star systems the vagabond object may have been exiled from.

Another theory suggests that Oumuamua could come not from the remains of planetary formation, but from the remnants of a planet's destruction.

"I conclude that the origin of Oumuamua as a fragment of a planet upset and then ejected by a dense member of a binary system could explain its peculiarities," writes Matija Cuk, of SETI Institute, in an article in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The idea here is that a clash with a dense red dwarf star may have torn apart a planet, throwing at least one cigar-shaped coin in our direction.

Comet coma

Another original explanation was that Oumuamua was a kind of strange comet on the other side of the comet-shaped galaxy that no comet we've ever seen and missing a tail obvious. However, it accelerated its exit from the solar system, like a comet, thanks to ice and water heated during its passage in the sun.

Various researchers have suggested that it may have been a dead comet nucleus, a fragmented comet in a manner similar to the explanation of the aforementioned planet fragment or just a comet-like thing … uh ….

Not so alien after all

It has also been suggested that Oumuamua has not even been so extraterrestrial. Some of the most recent research is exploring the possibility that this comes from the limits of our own solar system. One article even went so far as to suggest that its strange behavior and trajectory could be explained by the fact that they were "scattered" by a planet "still unknown" in our solar system.

Yes, it's a reference to what is sometimes called Planet 9 or Planet X, another often confusing and confusing concept that tends to make the Internet wild.

A follow – up article written by famed astronomer Jason Wright of Penn State casts cold water on the idea that an invisible planet could have cast Oumuamua on us.

As long as it remains on its current trajectory, the mystery of the first interstellar overflight of humanity will remain. Well, unless Oumuamua suddenly makes a U-turn.

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