Is This an Alien Spacecraft? Mysterious Object Oumuamua May Be A Vehicle for Extraterrestrials, Says Scientists
It says the object "may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization."
Oumuamua was among topics of discussions ever since it was found last year. The first interstellar object which was found within the solar system was believed to be an asteroid, but later was reclassified as a comet. However, scientists now think that it could be an alien spacecraft. Two Harvard researchers Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb, announced the claims in a paper which is to be published on November 12 in 'The Astrophysical Journal Letters'.
It says the object "may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization." According to the paper, the object is acting as a "light sail" going through space while using the sun as its energy source. Earlier too, researchers with the Breakthrough Listen project had said that the object was sending out radio signals. Origin of Oumuamua, Object in the Universe is Finally Revealed!
According to the scientists, it could be very thin but wide. However, they also say that it could be artificial. The research reads, "One possibility is that ‘Oumuamua is a light sail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment." Hinting at the alien life, they write, "Alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that ‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization."
The research on Earth state that the Earth already have the kind of technology that is used to make tiny spacecraft which can be shot through space at such speed and glide only by light. They also say that it could already have been developed elsewhere where they are transporting cargo between planets or even stars. In the coming years, scientists say look more into Oumuamua to understand about it in depth.
Earlier by combining data from the Very Large Telescope and other observatories, astronomers have found that the object is moving faster than predicted. It had later gained speed but 'Oumuamua is still slowing down because of the pull of the Sun'. To understand more about the object, researches studied European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory to find its exact location. It was then believed that Oumuamua could have come from red dwarf HIP 3757, sunlike star HD 292249, and two other stars.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 06, 2018 02:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).