The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer • Hacker News Board

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#61

Post by jcims » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #57

jcims wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think some of the vitriol comes around the discussion of whether or not we should develop a mission to go visit it.

That's simply not practically possible. It's just going too fast. We would either have to build a really stupendously big rocket, or develop propulsion that is dramatically more efficient than anything ever done before.

That's the point. If we received some kind of undeniable evidence that it was alien technology we would have three parallel 'Contact' level operations underway to go get it.

As a mystery object we might finally get someone to develop a mission based on a science objective once some of the technology has been sufficiently developed.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#62

Post by willis936 » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

breck wrote: post #42

willis936 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solar system has an orbital period of 250k years. Nearby systems do not have the same orbital period. I’m not sure galaxies are considered stable to individual stellar systems.

> The solar system has an orbital period of 250k years. I thought it was 250 million years, though maybe I'm misunderstanding you. [1] [1] https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/how-long-does-it-take-the... .

My mistake! I didn’t check, but knew the value was in the range of “too long to assume our galactic neighborhood is static or even repeating but too short to not have had potential repetitions show up in Earth geology”.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#63

Post by annoyingnoob » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

asidiali wrote: post #39

annoyingnoob wrote: post #29

How do we jump to the conclusion of aliens with so little information? Why not God sent it?

If it comes flying in on an asteroid sized spaceship...what’s the difference?

I suppose that we could imagine any kind of nonsense. We call that fiction not science.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#64

Post by AlwaysRock » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:48 PM UTC

What a hit piece. Interesting read but wow this really feels like one guy is annoyed with another guy and decided to write about him in this thinly veiled article.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#65

Post by Damorian » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

throw1234651234 wrote: post #59

Damorian wrote: post #50

I'm just saying, if I wanted to probe every solar system in the galaxy, I'd build a craft with extreme geometry that would fly very close to stars and accelerate for a gravity assist before flying toward the next target star. So it would look exactly like what we saw.

You would have to identify the star that Oumua is going to for that theory to work. Seems like it should be pretty easy to know if it's going to the nearest star (or coming from one), and it's not originated from or going to Alpha Centauri. The next question is whether or not there is some other logical path that defines logical gravity assists to visit as many stars as possible - nothing like that has been put forwa…

I don't think it's safe to assume it would come from/go to the nearest stars to us, as the flight path might need extreme changes that aren't in the fuel budget, especially given its already very high speed.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#66

Post by s1artibartfast » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

jcims wrote: post #13

eightails wrote: post #5

How hard is it for people to just admit that we probably have inadequate evidence to reach a solid conclusion. This was the first object of its kind and we had very limited observations of it. From what I've read, none of the hypotheses regarding the measured acceleration (e.g. outgassing vs manufactured solar sail) can really be backed up in any substantial way. So it seems disengenuous to get into vitriolic argumen…

I think some of the vitriol comes around the discussion of whether or not we should develop a mission to go visit it.

I haven't seen anyone in the scientific community actually push for this. I'm not sure it is even what Avi Loeb is pushing for.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#67

Post by nabla9 » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

gamapuna wrote: post #8

Here's a recent interview of Avi Loeb on this subject https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DQYiyQ7Tkk

That is probably the best interview/podcast made with Avi Loeb.

Mindscape podcast (Sean Carroll) is really good.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#68

Post by cambalache » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:54 PM UTC

jcims wrote: post #58

ericbarrett wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no chance of catching Oumuamua. It’s leaving the solar system at 26 km/s and it has a 3 year head start.

Today no. It's clearly possible but it's probably a 50 year objective between technology development and mission operations.

Good luck finding a 200-m object at 273 AU.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#69

Post by cambalache » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 4:58 PM UTC

shmageggy wrote: post #32

sandworm101 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His battle is only partly about Oumuamua. That is just a vehicle for his arguments. The real issue is the bias against life detection experiments generally. Want to sample soil on mars and measure oxygen absorption? Great. We will put your sensor on the next rover. Want to pour nutrients on that soil and see if anything eats it? Go away you crazy person. Want to detect methane in an exoplanet atmosphere? Here is your…

You’re putting a lot of words in his mouth. He did an AMA on reddit yesterday where he had every chance to say such things if that’s what he thinks, but he did little more than list his accomplishments and link to his books and articles. https://old.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/l6xl3d/askscien...

Or you just has not listened to his conversations with Lex Fridman, Sean Carroll and Joe Rogan among others.

Re: The Uncensored Guide to ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, and That Harvard Astronomer

#70

Post by TheBlight » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 5:08 PM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #40

eightails wrote: post #5

How hard is it for people to just admit that we probably have inadequate evidence to reach a solid conclusion. This was the first object of its kind and we had very limited observations of it. From what I've read, none of the hypotheses regarding the measured acceleration (e.g. outgassing vs manufactured solar sail) can really be backed up in any substantial way. So it seems disengenuous to get into vitriolic argumen…

The reason we have inadequate evidence is the relatively low priority of SETI compared to other science. SETI has literally been living off financial scraps for decades. If a couple of billionaires hadn't funded efforts with very generous personal donations there would be almost no SETI at all. And if SETI had been funded properly - which would still be a drop in the ocean compared to other government spending, natio…

>This is all quite strange considering how much of a game changer and scientific motivator evidence of ETI would be.

Well not only a motivator in an inspirational sense but if we can actually get our hands on ET debris who knows what technical leaps we might achieve by attempting to reverse engineer it/parts of it.