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Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

#71

Post by burtonator »

kentonv wrote: post #47

My pet theory (which is not intended to be taken too seriously) is that it is indeed a discarded light sail, and that light sail in particular was used to transport a Von Neumann probe which detached at some point after the object entered our solar system but before we first observed it. This detachment, in addition to leaving the sail tumbling, would have changed its trajectory, meaning our estimation of which direc…

> Realistically, though, it's too much of a coincidence that such a probe would first arrive so soon after we gained the ability to conceive of it.

It is based on TIME but our conception of it would be independent.

I think a lot of what's part of the drake equation is merited on overlap. It's entirely possible that other civilizations have been created and died out LONG before mammals even evolved.

IF you factor in just the last 200 years of human technological advancement it's plausible in another 200 we will have either destroyed ourselves or evolved into gods.

Either way we're not going to be talking to anyone in the universe.

I think it's plausible that a god would not want to talk to another intelligent civilization. Why would we? We would be to a god what bacteria is to us.

I don't really have a conversation with the bacteria infecting a wound. I just take antibiotics.

Re: Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

#72

Post by jimhefferon »

kentonv wrote: post #47

My pet theory (which is not intended to be taken too seriously) is that it is indeed a discarded light sail, and that light sail in particular was used to transport a Von Neumann probe which detached at some point after the object entered our solar system but before we first observed it. This detachment, in addition to leaving the sail tumbling, would have changed its trajectory, meaning our estimation of which direc…

> it's too much of a coincidence that such a probe would first arrive so soon after we gained the ability to conceive of it.

Perhaps they observed I Love Lucy and Gilligan and came by to complain about spectrum pollution.

Re: Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

#73

Post by adventured »

kentonv wrote: post #55
jameshart wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which forces the logical conclusion that this isn't the first such probe, obviously.

That could only be true if they are intentionally hiding from us, rather than replicating and harvesting the solar system as fast as they can. But personally I have a hard time believing that hyper-intelligent devices would care about avoiding detection by lowly biological organisms like us.

Those are not the only two options.

Besides, we still routinely fail to spot asteroids until they get close to Earth or pass by.

There may be more dwarf planets like Pluto, or a major planet the size of Neptune (per Caltech researchers, so called Planet Nine or Planet X) in our own solar system and we can't easily find them.

No need to intentionally hide from the primitive humans that are still struggling to locate large objects in their solar system and near their planet.

Re: Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

#74

Post by salawat »

extropy wrote: post #40
lowdose wrote: post #31

To start playing aliens throw us a snowball. What would have happend when Oumuamua would hit our planet?

If it was composed of solid hydrogen then very little. It would evaporate at slightest touch of a planets atmosphere. Maybe even bounce off it. For solid hydrogen any planet with atmosphere is like a ball of hot molten lava for a snowball. Edit: I was half expecting there to be a video of throwing snowballs into lava, Internet does not have it all, yet.

Sounds like something to add to the bucket list.

Re: Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

#76

Post by tempsolution »

Really? They are so hellbent on proving alien life that they take anything huh... And that from a Harvard professor. Great.

So what do we have here. Some cigar shaped object, rotating around its own axis and accelerating somehow. I know, this must be an "advanced" alien space ship.

Or it could be just some debris from a collision from god knows where. And that crap is now heating up while approaching our solar system and you know, frozen stuff starts to evaporate and accelerating this object.

I still find it fascinating how even professors who should know better, just pull these crazy ideas out of their hat. Usually the simple explanation is the right one, and given that humans have no visibility into space whatsoever, it is kinda interesting to come up with theories like that. They have no clue where this thing came from, but make grand assumptions about how it must have behaved in the past.

Re: Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

#77

Post by jcims »

api wrote: post #29
Sharlin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, because of the most obvious reason that comes to mind: it's way too small and way too far away! Even when it was discovered, near the perihelion of its hyberbolic orbit, it was small enough that we had no way whatsoever actually resolving it as anything else than a point of light. We could only guesstimate its rough shape by measuring its light curve—how its brightness changes as it rotates—and then simulating wh…

Could the JWST see it? It goes up soon.

Will that be the most valuable asset put in space on one lunch? Aside from stuff we don’t know about of course?

Re: Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

#79

Post by novalis78 »

kentonv wrote: post #47

My pet theory (which is not intended to be taken too seriously) is that it is indeed a discarded light sail, and that light sail in particular was used to transport a Von Neumann probe which detached at some point after the object entered our solar system but before we first observed it. This detachment, in addition to leaving the sail tumbling, would have changed its trajectory, meaning our estimation of which direc…

Speaking of pet theories, here is mine: There exists a sentry system of interstellar buoys that get sucked into star systems passing by. Perhaps with a solar sail, so they can control a bit which stars they want to take a closer look at. Our solar system become "recently" a candidate for obvious reasons. The probe made its analysis and plotted a fast escape, sending a tight laser beam to the next closest relay station. A fleet of planet biosphere erasing machine intelligence dispatch is on its way. Probably some ancient left over from AIGs engaged in eternal warfare. Hence a dead silent galaxy, a rather dark forest.
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