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

The first interstellar object in 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 enter our star system – has received an unexpected acceleration in speed when it passed through the internal solar system last year .

Because the object seems to have qualities associated with both asteroids and comets, astronomers have assumed that its unusual acceleration could be the result of a 'artificial light sail' pushed by solar radiation.

The study "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, director of ITC, science professor Frank Baird Jr. at Harvard University.

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 to think that it could be an extraterrestrial artifact.

For a year, the scientific community has been questioning 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 they have not gone through the same process as close to the Sun, Bialy and Loeb argue that it's about a light sail – a form of spaceship that uses the pressure of radiation 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 assumption 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, suggested that the dust grains on the surface of most comets had eroded during the trip of Oumuamua in interstellar space.