Mysterious interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua could be a giant solar sail ‘sent from another civilization to look for signs of life,’ claim astronomers
- Mysterious object Oumuamua arrived in our solar system in October 2017
- NASA spotted unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year
- Now one study claims it could actually be a solar sail sent by aliens
By MARK PRIGG
A mysterious asteroid called Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever seen in the solar system, could be a gigantic alien solar sail send to look for signs of life, a new study has claimed.
Astronomers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) analyzed the strange cigar shape of the object, and an unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year.
They concluded that the strange asteroid ‘might be a lightsail of artificial origin.’
The study – ‘Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?’, which recently appeared online – was conducted by Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral researcher at the CfA’s Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) and Professor Abraham Loeb, the director of the ITC, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, and the head chair of the Breakthrough Starshot Advisory Committee.
The researchers say the strange acceleration could the the result of solar radiation pushing a giant solar sail.