The space object was dubbed \u2018Oumuamua (pronounced \u201coh moo ah moo ah\u201d), which is Hawaiian for \u2014 roughly \u2014 \u201cscout.\u201d<\/p>\n
As space travelers go, it was relatively small at just about 100 yards long, but it was a big deal in the scientific community.<\/p>\n
For starters, it was the first interstellar object ever detected inside our solar system. Judging from the object\u2019s trajectory, astronomers concluded it was not bound by the sun\u2019s gravity \u2014 which suggested it was just traveling through.<\/p>\n
No crisp photos could be taken, but astronomers were able to train their telescopes on the object for 11 days, collecting reams of other data.<\/p>\n
At first, scientists thought it was an ordinary comet. But Loeb said that assumption ran the risk of allowing \u201cthe familiar to define what we might discover.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would happen if a caveman saw a cellphone?\u201d he asked. \u201cHe\u2019s seen rocks all his life, and he would have thought it was just a shiny rock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loeb soon opened his mind to another possibility: It was not a comet but discarded tech from an alien civilization.<\/p>\n
A number of unusual properties about the object helped Loeb make this conclusion.<\/p>\n
First were \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s dimensions.<\/p>\n
Astronomers looked at the way the object reflected sunlight. Its brightness varied tenfold every eight hours, suggesting that was the amount of time it took for it to complete a full rotation.<\/p>\n
Scientists concluded the object was at least five to ten times longer than it was wide \u2014 sort of like the shape of a cigar.<\/p>\n
No naturally occurring space body we\u2019ve ever seen has looked like it \u2014 or even close.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis would make \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s geometry more extreme by at least a few times in aspect ratio \u2014 or its width to its height \u2014 than the most extreme asteroids or comets that we have ever seen,\u201d Loeb writes in his book.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, \u2018Oumuamua was unusually bright. It was at least \u201cten times more reflective than typical solar system [stony] asteroids or comets,\u201d the author writes.<\/p>\n
He likens its surface to that of shiny metal.<\/p>\n
But the anomaly that really pushed Loeb toward his E.T. hypothesis was the way \u2018Oumuamua moved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe excess push away from the sun \u2014 that was the thing that broke the camel\u2019s back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Using physics, scientists can calculate the exact path an object should take and what speed it should travel due to the gravitational force exerted by the sun. The sun\u2019s pull will speed up an object massively as it gets closer, then kick it out the other side, only for the object to slow considerably as it gets farther away.<\/p>\n\n
But \u2018Oumuamua didn\u2019t follow this calculated trajectory. The object, in fact, accelerated \u201cslightly, but to a highly statistically significant extent,\u201d Loeb writes, as it moved away from the sun.<\/p>\n
In other words, it was clearly being pushed by a force besides the sun\u2019s gravity alone.<\/p>\n
At first the explanation seemed simple. Comets show a similar acceleration, because as they approach the sun, their surface is warmed, releasing once-frozen gases, which act like a rocket engine.<\/p>\n
Those released materials, however, form a comet\u2019s distinctive tail. Scientists looked carefully for that tail or any sign of gases or dust that might propel \u2018Oumuamua and came up empty.<\/p>\n
Loeb calculated that with these and other anomalies, the chances that \u2018Oumuamua was some random comet was around one in a quadrillion, leading him to his blockbuster hypothesis.<\/p>\n
But what was it exactly?<\/p>\n
One possibility, weirdly enough, could be found in technology we already have here on earth.<\/p>\n
Some 400 years ago, astronomer Johannes Kepler observed comet tails blowing in what looked like a solar breeze and wondered if that same force could propel rocket ships through space like the wind pushes boats through water.<\/p>\n
It was a smart idea that scientists now use to develop light sails for probes. Thin, reflective sheeting is unfurled in space to capture the particles streaming off the sun, propelling a ship at great speeds through the empty void. Alternatively, powerful lasers from earth could be aimed at the sail to make it go even faster.<\/p>\n
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Loeb, who is involved in a light-sail project to send a tiny, unmanned craft to a nearby star, said if we earthlings have thought of this idea, then why couldn\u2019t aliens?<\/p>\n
He and a colleague crunched the numbers and hypothesized that \u2018Oumuamua was not actually cigar-shaped but possibly a disk less than a millimeter thick, with sail-like proportions that would account for its unusual acceleration as it moved away from the sun.<\/p>\n
As to its purpose, Loeb isn\u2019t entirely sure. He speculated it could be \u201cspace junk\u201d that once served as a kind of space navigation buoy used by a long-ago civilization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way to look for [alien civilizations] is to look for their trash, like investigative journalists who look through celebrities\u2019 trash,\u201d Loeb said.<\/p>\n
Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n Of course, not everyone in the scientific community agrees with his theory.<\/p>\n In July 2019, the \u2018Oumuamua Team of the International Space Science Institute published an article in Nature Astronomy concluding, \u201cWe find no compelling evidence to favor an alien explanation for \u2018Oumuamua.\u201d<\/p>\n Loeb admits his theories have raised astronomers\u2019 eyebrows, but he is resolute about his findings. \u201cSome people do not want to discuss the possibility that there are other civilizations out there,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cThey believe we are special and unique. I think it\u2019s a prejudice that should be abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Some people do not want to discuss the possibility that there are other civilizations out there.\u2019<\/p>\n Avi Loeb, Harvard astronomer and author of \u201cExtraterrestrial\u201d<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Loeb said the skeptics are bending over backwards to assign natural origins to the object and that the explanations they\u2019ve given to explain its weird properties don\u2019t stand up to scrutiny.<\/p>\n For example, some scientists have suggested that \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s acceleration was caused by frozen hydrogen on its surface turning to gas and driving it like a comet, and that hydrogen would have been invisible to Earth\u2019s infrared cameras, which is why we didn\u2019t detect it.<\/p>\n But Loeb and a colleague published a paper showing that \u201ca hydrogen iceberg traveling through interstellar space would evaporate long before it reached our solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever the truth, the stakes are high.<\/p>\n The acceptance that an alien race has made contact \u2014 even through its trash \u2014 would trigger a serious search for more trash, leading us to scour the moon and Mars, for example, for debris that might have crash-landed thousands or millions of years ago.<\/p>\n And if more evidence is found, we earthlings would have to start building tools to help us grapple with extraterrestrials, such as space treaties and academic fields like astro-linguistics and astro-economics.<\/p>\n But, perhaps more important, any further discoveries could redefine our place in the universe.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would put us in perspective,\u201d Loeb said. \u201cIf we are not alone, are we the smartest kids on the block? If there was a species that eliminated itself through war or changing the climate, we can get our act together and behave better. Instead, we are wasting a lot of resources on Earth fighting each other and other negative things that are a big waste.\u201d<\/p>\n Since \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s appearance, a second interstellar object known as 2I\/Borisov was spotted entering the solar system by a Crimean telescope in 2019. But that turned out to be a plain old comet.<\/p>\n Until recently, our instruments have not been sensitive enough to pick up these kinds of visitors. But Loeb said technology will soon make it possible to locate more space travelers, and the only way the mystery of \u2018Oumuamua will be settled is if a similar object is spotted and more thoroughly investigated with a probe.<\/p>\n He said his book \u201cshould motivate people to collect more data on the next object that looks weird.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf we find another and we take a photo and it looks like a light sail, I don\u2019t think anyone will argue with that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n When the first sign of intelligent life first visits us from space, it won\u2019t be a giant saucer hovering over New York. More likely, it will be an alien civilization\u2019s trash. Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard\u2019s Department of Astronomy, believes he\u2019s already found some of that garbage. In his upcoming book, \u201cExtraterrestrial: The First …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38],"tags":[3034],"yoast_head":"\n\r\n \t