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Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

theguardian.com

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Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#11

Post by wasx »

I'm kind of glad to hear that to be honest. It's already too far away from us and going too fast for any spacecraft that could currently be built to reach it. It would have been a very cruel joke if the first opportunity for interaction with extra terrestrial intelligence flew past us so unceremoniously.

Of course it's certainly disappointing that it isn't an alien spacecraft, but would have been doubly so if it were and we missed our window of opportunity.

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#13

Post by cantrip »

wasx wrote: post #11

I'm kind of glad to hear that to be honest. It's already too far away from us and going too fast for any spacecraft that could currently be built to reach it. It would have been a very cruel joke if the first opportunity for interaction with extra terrestrial intelligence flew past us so unceremoniously. Of course it's certainly disappointing that it isn't an alien spacecraft, but would have been doubly so if it were…

I dunno I think if it were an alien spacecraft we should just keep our heads low and not draw any attention to it. Our first window of opportunity might be our last.

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#15

Post by wasx »

cantrip wrote: post #13
wasx wrote: post #11

I'm kind of glad to hear that to be honest. It's already too far away from us and going too fast for any spacecraft that could currently be built to reach it. It would have been a very cruel joke if the first opportunity for interaction with extra terrestrial intelligence flew past us so unceremoniously. Of course it's certainly disappointing that it isn't an alien spacecraft, but would have been doubly so if it were…

I dunno I think if it were an alien spacecraft we should just keep our heads low and not draw any attention to it. Our first window of opportunity might be our last.

I've gotta disagree with you on this. Personally I think intelligent life is probably very rare in the universe, the sheer number of factors that need to go right for it to arise, and then the sheer number of factors that need to not go wrong for it to continue to exist mean any intelligent life out there is probably going to find us way more valuable and worthy of co-operation and interaction than say destruction of us for the measly resources of Earth, or enslavement (although I guess enslavement could be possible).

I do also have faith in the "humanity" of any interstellar life that may exist out there, after all a society based on oppression tends to be rife with conflict, and societies rife with instability and conflict don't tend to last. And in my view it would be very unsustainable for any life to maintain that sort of conflict, and at the same time hope to extend a society out into the universe.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I think it's worth the risk.

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#16

Post by vvanders »

cantrip wrote: post #13
wasx wrote: post #11

I'm kind of glad to hear that to be honest. It's already too far away from us and going too fast for any spacecraft that could currently be built to reach it. It would have been a very cruel joke if the first opportunity for interaction with extra terrestrial intelligence flew past us so unceremoniously. Of course it's certainly disappointing that it isn't an alien spacecraft, but would have been doubly so if it were…

I dunno I think if it were an alien spacecraft we should just keep our heads low and not draw any attention to it. Our first window of opportunity might be our last.

Good luck with that considering how much RF we're blasting out into space(you can make contact with the ISS/AmSats on a 5W handheld + yagi antenna).

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#17

Post by bleke »

First thing what I do if it is my spacecraft i will not send anything until I'll far away enough to not be detected and probably won't point transmitter to planet which are investigated (I know that signal can be reflected back from cosmic debris, but who can send rock to other solar system won't have problem to calculate signal path which doesn't point to us)

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#18

Post by [deleted] »

sp332 wrote: post #4

There's only one apostrophe in the name. It's not quote marks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻOumuamua Or to be really specific https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/02bb/index.htm "typographical alternate for U+02BD or U+02BF used in Hawai`ian orthography as `okina (glottal stop)"

[deleted]

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#20

Post by InclinedPlane »

wasx wrote: post #11

I'm kind of glad to hear that to be honest. It's already too far away from us and going too fast for any spacecraft that could currently be built to reach it. It would have been a very cruel joke if the first opportunity for interaction with extra terrestrial intelligence flew past us so unceremoniously. Of course it's certainly disappointing that it isn't an alien spacecraft, but would have been doubly so if it were…

It's going pretty fast, but it'll slow down a lot as it crawls back out of the Sun's gravity well. It'll only be 100 AU away in 2034 and 1000 AU away in 2196. Which means that human made spacecraft absolutely will visit it in either the 21st or 22nd centuries. We could actually pull off a flyby mission within the next two decades or so if we dedicated enough resources to it. And as our launch technology improves over time, that only gets easier and cheaper.
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