Live data from Hacker News

Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

quantamagazine.org

51–60 of 118 posts

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t such an object be emitting radio signals that earth could receive?

Not if it's something like another civilization's Tesla Roadster.

Right. As unlikely it is to run on other civilizations remainders, there is quite some chance for future humans to have a surprise find of a 2008 Tesla roadster :)

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#53
post #3

I'm still convinced this is an alien probe. I mean look at that trajectory. 0.163 AU from Earth - what are the odds? The spinning is irrelevant surely - I mean, it's all relative, so as far as ’Oumuamua is concerned, we're spinning. Maybe it was spinning that way to stay aligned with a distant companion for communication.

> 0.163 AU from Earth - what are the odds?

Look at it from a sampling bias perspective. The object at its brightest was very dim (19th magnitude) and moving fast. The ability for rapid, repeating full sky surveys is recent (PanSTARRS had been online for around a decade). The limiting magnitude of PanSTARRS is 24th. So if such other such objects exist, of course we are going to find the closest ones first since they are the brightest.

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#54
post #3

I'm still convinced this is an alien probe. I mean look at that trajectory. 0.163 AU from Earth - what are the odds? The spinning is irrelevant surely - I mean, it's all relative, so as far as ’Oumuamua is concerned, we're spinning. Maybe it was spinning that way to stay aligned with a distant companion for communication.

There's another little fun point here. If this was a probe, the point where you'd accelerate to have the greatest effect on your trajectory would be exactly where it did - at one of its semi-major points - where its trajectory turns.

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#55
post #17
post #3

I'm still convinced this is an alien probe. I mean look at that trajectory. 0.163 AU from Earth - what are the odds? The spinning is irrelevant surely - I mean, it's all relative, so as far as ’Oumuamua is concerned, we're spinning. Maybe it was spinning that way to stay aligned with a distant companion for communication.

This has always fascinated me. We can actually build giant spaceships (space stations) inside asteroids and use them for interstellar travel. All the resources we need, including ice would be at our disposal. Like traveling with your own mini-planet. Dirk Schulze had taken that as a subject into his sci-fiction book - Alien Encounter.

They’d make great protection from high speed space debris.

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#56
post #50
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has always fascinated me. We can actually build giant spaceships (space stations) inside asteroids and use them for interstellar travel. All the resources we need, including ice would be at our disposal. Like traveling with your own mini-planet. Dirk Schulze had taken that as a subject into his sci-fiction book - Alien Encounter.

From an energy perspective, it's likely better to build your own station (from an asteroid - or alternative, remove all the mass from the asteroid that you don't need) - that way, you're only accelerating exactly the mass that you need, not wasting any energy accelerating the rest of an asteroid.

I think he is talking about chilling on the asteroid while it follows its known trajectory undisturbed, simply because they are packed with useful resources we can gobble up while waiting.

Asteroid are per definition not interstellar though (until Oumuamua?).

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#57
post #3

I'm still convinced this is an alien probe. I mean look at that trajectory. 0.163 AU from Earth - what are the odds? The spinning is irrelevant surely - I mean, it's all relative, so as far as ’Oumuamua is concerned, we're spinning. Maybe it was spinning that way to stay aligned with a distant companion for communication.

I prefer a complementary theory -- that it's a spent stage of a multi-stage spacecraft. If the primary stage were decelerating for a rendezvous with Earth, then any stage that made it to full acceleration would reach us first, probably getting close and then flinging back out of the solar system, just like this did. Easy enough to test -- we'll eventually see another object following the same trajectory, give or take…

What if the object was already traveling in our rough direction and aliens decided to simply take advantage of the free ride? They tweaked the direction with a few thrusters to pass by Earth, and they left the rotation to help camouflage the object with its natural tumble through space. Finally, they deboarded the object when they reached their desired location nearest to Earth.

It's fun to speculate, but I'm sure the reality of the situation is far more boring.

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#58
post #3

I'm still convinced this is an alien probe. I mean look at that trajectory. 0.163 AU from Earth - what are the odds? The spinning is irrelevant surely - I mean, it's all relative, so as far as ’Oumuamua is concerned, we're spinning. Maybe it was spinning that way to stay aligned with a distant companion for communication.

I want this to be an alien ship so badly!

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#59
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has always fascinated me. We can actually build giant spaceships (space stations) inside asteroids and use them for interstellar travel. All the resources we need, including ice would be at our disposal. Like traveling with your own mini-planet. Dirk Schulze had taken that as a subject into his sci-fiction book - Alien Encounter.

For the book, the reviews on Goodreads aren't very good :-/ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18268008-alien-encounter

That's true, but I personally found it pretty engaging. In fact, I read the last 150+ pages in one night. I'd give it at least 4 stars.

Re: Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

#60
post #3

I'm still convinced this is an alien probe. I mean look at that trajectory. 0.163 AU from Earth - what are the odds? The spinning is irrelevant surely - I mean, it's all relative, so as far as ’Oumuamua is concerned, we're spinning. Maybe it was spinning that way to stay aligned with a distant companion for communication.

> The spinning is irrelevant surely - I mean it’s all relative

That is incorrect. All motion is not relative, only intertial motion is relative. Spinning implies acceleration on a body which is measurably different from any reference frame compared to a body that is not accelerating

Post reply on HN