﻿Oumuamua May Have Been a Sign of Intelligent Life
Intro Ever since the dawn of the information age,
one of the biggest unanswered questions for our species has been if we are alone in this universe.
Over the years there has been much speculation about the probability of intelligent life
outside our solar system. Many scientists believe that contact with an alien race is
inevitable while many others still demand more evidence. One recent sign of intelligent life
could be the interstellar visitor called Oumuamua.
Discovered in 2017, the comet is the first known object from another star to enter our solar
system. While many believe that the object is like any other comet passing through our system,
others think that it might be an alien probe. In today's video let's dig deeper into the mystery of
Oumuamua and its strange origins. Discovery
The strange interstellar object was discovered by accident in October of 2017 by Robert Weryck,
a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. While scanning
the skies above Maui for asteroids approaching Earth, he thought he had found what he was looking
for but upon closer inspection, it was determined that the orbit of the object did not make sense.
After performing numerous calculations, it was found that the trajectory of the object
was consistent with it originating from outside our solar system. This came as a major surprise
as many in the astronomical community had been seeking such a visitor for decades. Up until
Oumuamua’s arrival, no interstellar object was known to pass through our neighborhood before.
Since it was first discovered from a facility in Hawaii, it was agreed that the object would
have a Hawaiian name. Upon discussing what the object was and how it was found the name Oumuamua
was proposed. The word translates to it being called the first scout from a distant place.
The shape of the object is one of its strangest properties. It has been compared to looking like a
cigar floating through space. While it passed too far from Earth to appear anything more than a dot
even through the most powerful telescopes, the way its light brightened and dimmed
indicated that it has a stretched-out shape. It is estimated to be at least seven times as
long as it is wide, but it is quite small than initially thought as it is no bigger than 3,000
feet by 400 feet. Additionally, the object has been observed to tumble as it travels,
completing one full flip about every eight hours. While there are many realistic-looking
illustrations of the object, astronomers are not yet certain about what it looks like up close.
Oumuamua is also thought to have a reddish surface, but this has also yet to be confirmed.
Its color seems consistent with other comets that are made of ice and rock. Additionally, the object
sped up after it passed the Sun, this is likely because it was pushed by outgassing of frozen
material from its surface, a common characteristic among comets. However, upon observations by NASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope no evidence of a comet-like tail of gas and dust was found,
leaving scientists perplexed. Tracking the Object
Oumuamua slingshot past the Sun at blistering speeds of 196,000 miles per hour and its
trajectory suggests that it had been wandering through the Milky Way, unattached to any star
system for hundreds of millions of years before finally entering our neighborhood. The existence
of such objects was theorized for decades but this was the first time one could be observed
so closely. Immediately after its discovery, telescopes around the world including ESO's
Very Large Telescope in Chile began to measure and observe its path, orbit, brightness, and color.
Combining the images from the ESO telescope using four different filters with other
large telescopes, astronomers found that the Oumuamua varies in brightness by a factor of 10
as it spins on its axis every 7.3 hours. This is very interesting as no other known comet or
asteroid in our solar system varies so widely in brightness and with such a large ratio between
length and width. The reddish color of its surface also suggests that similarly to other objects in
the outer solar system, Oumuamua is completely inert. This means that the object is very dense
and composed of rock and possibly even metals. It has no ice or water and it turned red due
to the effects of irradiation from cosmic rays over hundreds of millions of years.
The massive telescopes continued tracking Oumuamua as it receded from our planet and started to fade
into the distance. It was observed to be traveling at 85,700 miles per hour relative to the Sun. Its
outbound path was at about 20 degrees above the plane of planets that orbit the Sun. It passed
the orbit of Mars first and then traveled beyond the orbit of Saturn in 2019 as it leaves our
solar system and heads for its next destination which seems to be the constellation Pegasus.
Where Did it Come From? Orbital calculations show that Oumuamua
came from the direction of Vega, a bright star in the northern constellation of Lyra. However,
the interstellar object has been traveling for so long that even at speeds of 59,000 miles per hour,
Vega was not in the same spot it is now when Oumuamua passed through it some 300,000 years
ago. Upon further backtracking of the object's movements, one team of astronomers found that
Oumuamua could have originated from a small red star named HIP 3757 about a million years ago,
but nothing has been confirmed. Astronomers believe that interstellar
objects similar to Oumuamua pass through the inner solar system about once per year,
but they are incredibly faint and hard to spot making them easy to miss so far. But now
due to advancements in observational technology, massive survey telescopes located
all across the globe are powerful enough to have a chance at discovering such objects.
Research suggests that the object may have gotten its strange shape due to originating from a system
with a dense, central star providing further clues about where it came from.
This is because dense stars have enough gravity to destroy worlds that come too close without
burning them to a crisp first. Upon plotting the trajectories of similar objects, astronomers found
that if any of these objects come within about 220,000 miles of their host star,
they will be spun, stretched out, and shredded by the star's gravity. This process is called tidal
disruption. Depending on the composition of the parent world, some of its fragments could take the
shape of elongated objects like Oumuamua. Possible Alien Ship?
The strange characteristics of the object made it look like a spacecraft that came from another
star, took a quick pass through our system, and then sped away. Many astronomers have been
intrigued by this possibility and the researchers at the Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence
listened for any potential technological signals leaking from the object on two different occasions
but came up empty. One popular theory came from Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics that stated that Oumuamua was an advanced piece of alien technology
that uses a LightSail method of propulsion. This type of propulsion is thought to use the
Sun's photons as a means to power the craft. His reasoning for this is that if the object was a
comet, its outgassing would have altered its rotation period. This effect should have been
easily identifiable on the Oumuamua but was never observed. Loeb believes that the object could be
a defunct piece of space junk from an advanced technological civilization that accidentally
landed in our system. Another theory is that it could potentially be an exploratory ship that
was sent to check out our region in the universe. While very few scientists agree with Loeb's views,
he contends that dismissing the possibility of aliens eliminates useful hypotheses that should
be an acceptable part of rational inquiry. Leob has made it clear that he does not claim that the
craft is alien, only that the scientific community is open to the possibility that it could be.
Currently, there is no concrete evidence that links Oumuamua to an advanced alien race
other than a few considerable theories about its origin. A lack of data on the
object has made it difficult to properly identify where it could have come from.
Conclusion After seeing Oumuamua, researchers
are now eager to spot similar objects. Estimates suggest that there could be many trillions of
similar entities drifting through the Milky Way. Studying these interstellar objects could answer
many questions about the universe that have stumped scientists for decades, one of them
being if life exists outside our solar system. It may not be too long before we can frequently
spot these elusive objects thanks to The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in Chile
which is scheduled to be operational soon. Thanks for tuning in and we hope you found the
video informative, if you did, please check out our video on the Kardashev Scale and what alien
civilizations may look like if they exist. Do you think the Oumuamua is an alien probe?
Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.