Okay A little backstory first the day was October 14, 2017. a strange Cosmic object was flying past
our planet and no one had the slightest clue five days later the interstellar object was on
its way out of the solar system when Robert werrick an astronomer at the University of
Hawaii at Manoa spotted it with the panoramic survey telescope and rapid response system in
Hawaii it was from the moment of its Discovery a weird object with a weird orbit speed and
properties the strange object was nomenclature the first known Interstellar object to visit the
solar system but here is the thing it left the solar system faster than it had entered never to
return again and here is when it becomes really interesting while tracking omuamu we expected
perhaps naively that it would follow a hyperbolic orbit as though the only force acting on it would
be gravitational what we found out however was that a normal perfectly hyperbolic orbit didn't
quite fit what we observed it was as though there was an additional acceleration as though something
unobserved were pushing it in addition to the influence of gravity shaped like an elongated
Cigar by the time it was spotted it had already zipped by our own Sun performed the slick hayop in
turn and begun hurtling off in another Direction two things in particular fixated scientists the
first was its mysterious acceleration away from the sun which was hard to reconcile with many
ideas about what it might have been made of the second was its peculiar shape by some estimates
it was 10 times as long as it was wired over the years that followed scientific journals and Global
media headlines swarmed with speculation was it a block of solid hydrogen been a debris or
was it as the esteemed Harvard astronomer every lobe suggested an artificial construction made
by an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization since the mysterious traveler is out of range of
existing telescopes there is only one way to find out we go after it welcome to lab 360. it's time
to explore new research outlines a mission called project Lyra to send a probe to see if our newer
Muir is as extraordinary as it appears theories to explain the nature of omuamua have included
a hydrogenized burke an alien solar sail and fragments of a tidally disrupted planet and so on
all explanations have one feature in common they are extraordinary the research recommends
a mission that launches in February 2028 spends four years getting gravity assists from Earth
twice and then Venus and Jupiter and finally reaching our newer Muir between 2050 to 2054 the
isn't the first attempt to plot a course for our Muir though most of the other attempts
have resorted to using an o-birth maneuver around the Sun that tactic Caesar spacecraft fall into
a gravitational well and as it's falling use its engines to add more acceleration its disadvantage
is that a massive Shield would be required to protect a probe against the Sun instead
project liar employs an o-birth maneuver around Jupiter the mission would much more resemble
existing interplanetary missions the drawback is that launch opportunities are very limited
the other option of course is to wait until another object like our Muir comes along and visit
that one instead after all there could be seven passing through our solar system each year it
would even be that most comets come from other star systems it would not be wise to wait
according to the scientists because the second Interstellar object ever found to I borisov in
2019 resembles minor bodies already found in the solar system this makes our newer Muir even more
of an oddity and it is unclear what the likelihood of encountering a similar object again is
meanwhile Avi Logue suggests that not only are there aliens in our galaxy but there are actually
Four quintillion Army muers speeding across our solar system to be fair lobe isn't outright saying
omuamua was an alien spacecraft per se but he is saying we should be open to that possibility
in light of that Outlook he's basically asking what respectable scientists would never deign
to do how many possible our Muay muers could there be in our solar system that go unnoticed
Loeb and fellow Harvard astronomer carcinazelle looked at how many Interstellar visitors we've
already spotted one can use recent traits of detection of interstellar objects and
known capabilities to estimate the density of similar objects in the Solar neighborhood
astronomers wrote in the study since our Muir they have been three more Interstellar objects detected
by astronomers making it four in eight years at that rate low bandazola calculated there could be
up to a staggering 40 decillion Interstellar objects in the entire solar system including
areas beyond the reach of our instruments that number is brought down to the more humble four
quintillion figure when limiting the scope to the habitable zone near the sun which is potentially
exciting since if some of them are aliens they'd be easier to detect some of logue's theories are
boundary pushing but he never fails to raise some fascinating points even if the majority of four
quintillion Interstellar objects turn out to just be bits of Space Rock which lobe admits is likely
that still leaves quite a bit of room for some of them to be alien spacecraft but where are
they the first thing that comes to my mind is the Kuiper belt a cold dark and distant space
in the outer solar system it's primarily made up of icy objects dwarf planets dust and comets
so far over 2 000 Kuiper built objects have been cataloged researchers believe these are only a
tiny fraction of the total number of objects scientists think are out there but one thing
that fascinated NASA in the Kuiper belt is the 15 8 1001 a quick Google search will tell you that R1
is a Kuiper built object a large rock that orbits round outside the orbit of Neptune but is it a
rock in April 2016 NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reached the Kuiper belt after capturing its first
Target Pluto the probe turned its sight towards a large object on a strange trajectory yes we
are talking about 15 1801 named after the Celtic gourd of death war and the other world now why is
it so special you ask well most of the objects in the Kuiper belt are made of rock and ice
R1 doesn't move like any of cataloged objects in the belt this has made scientists question
if it is made of something completely different something much stronger because it's rotating so
fast that centrifugal force should have taunted apart how could something spin so fast and stay
intact scientists believe that the fast spin is creating artificial gravity and
gravity would be the most vital thing needed for long Interstellar travel you cannot have
astronauts floating around the spacecraft while traversing hundreds of light years
this probed the New Horizon to take a closer look at the object and here is when things turn strange
as the probe tried to get a closer look suddenly all of its sensors went dead Transmissions cut off
it was as if someone was monitoring our presence someone or something that did not want us to know
about them but just before losing contact Nasser observed that our one was spinning like a large
spaceship would now you can say that it might have been a technical glitch but here is when
things get crazier only when New Horizon moved away from R1 it suddenly came back to life as
if nothing had ever happened in the first place now I would leave it to you to assume what it was
but if it's an intelligent alien civilization it makes complete sense to stay far away from Earth
silently observe us from the cold and dark space in the Kuiper belt and whenever the need arises
for a closer inspection hop onto a spacecraft and camouflage it so that it appears as a mere Space
Rock to the beings of the planet in addition lobe also suggested in the past that omuamua could be
a piece of alien space junk a defunct sail craft that has accidentally found its way to us or it
may be an active reconnaissance graft sent here to check out our solar system he had written in
the study there are reasons to favor the latter explanation Loeb said for starters our mu is
very Discovery was something of an anomaly our own solar system doesn't shed so many our newer
newer-like objects in addition our muamiwa's motion is roughly coincident with the average
motion of material in our patch of the Milky Way galaxy a kinematic space known as the local
standard of rest indeed that's why the object system of origin has been so hard to pin down
if I created an instrument whose identity I would like to hide I would put it at the
local standard of rest lobe set astronomers have used the green Bank telescope in West Virginia
and the Allen telescope array in Northern California to listen for any possible things
coming from our Muir to date the object has remained silent what do you guys think should
we go after omuamua or wait until another one shows up at our doorstep dropping your comments
to let us know and don't forget to subscribe to lab 360. because together we will explore