credit: NASA/ESA/STScI
‘Oumuamua — a curious, cigar-shaped rock — was the first interstellar space rock ever discovered in our solar system, though scientists debate whether it should be classified as an asteroid or comet. Now, a new study suggests that the strange object could actually be an alien light sail, or solar-powered spacecraft.
Abraham Loeb and Shmuel Bialy from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) conducted the study, titled “Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?” The paper was posted on the preprint website, the arXiv. In it, the astronomers offer a unique, new explanation for some strange behavior ‘Oumuamua has displayed.
The asteroid was first detected by the Pan-STARRS-1 survey in 2017. Astronomers saw it traveling out of our solar system and noted that it was spinning rapidly and likely had a rocky and metallic composition. Further research showed that ‘Oumuamua was also surprisingly icy, despite it not being a comet.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2018/11/06/oumuamua-asteroid-alien-sail/
On October 19, 2017, astronomers first saw an object from another solar system traveling through our own. Zipping into our solar system from above, the interloper, now known as 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), swung around the Sun and shot away again, never to return once it leaves our neck of the woods for interstellar space once more.
What have we learned about this mysterious visitor?
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2018/11/08/oumuamua-alien-asteroid-comet/#.W-Wo_WJKjBI