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Could it be....RAMA?
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 8:12 pm    Post subject: UPDATE Reply with quote

https://www.engadget.com/2018/11/18/oumuamua-size-and-reflection-findings/?yptr=yahoo

After no small amount of mystery, we're starting to understand more about 'Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object to visit the Solar System. A newly published study indicates that the object can't be that large, for one thing. As the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared detection couldn't catch the cigar-shaped entity, that makes it relatively small. It's likely less than half a mile (2,600 feet) at its longest. It also can't have a diameter larger than 1,440 feet, and that figure could be as small as 320 feet.

The research also found something unusual: it's extremely reflective, potentially up to 10 times more than Solar System comets. Just what caused this isn't certain, though. It could be that 'Oumuamua lost a lot of its surface dirt and dust as it passed near the Sun, which (combined with gas from the object itself) left it covered in reflective ice and snow. This happens with local comets, although not necessarily to this degree.

There's one major problem with verifying details: it's likely too late. The object is now roughly as far from the Sun as Saturn, and that puts it too far away for study by current space telescopes. Whatever its exact nature, we may have to wait a long while to get more answers -- if we get any at all.

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 3:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/harvard-professor-says-alien-technology-045433715.html

A Harvard professor believes that we were visited by an alien object in 2017.

In his upcoming book, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, theoretical physicist Avi Loeb lays out his theory about a peculiar-shaped object that entered our solar system several years ago.

The interstellar object—named "Oumuamua"—was first observed through the Pan-STARRS telescope at Hawaii's Haleakala Observatory in 2017. Researchers determined that it had passed through the ecliptic plane on Sept. 6 from the direction of Vega, a star in the Lyra constellation that is about 25 light-years away from our planet. Just three days after later, Oumuamua—Hawaiian for "scout"—began accelerating toward the sun, before it eventually came closer to Earth on Oct. 7, "moving swiftly toward the constellation Pegasus and the blackness beyond," according to Loeb.

Some scientists claim Oumuamua, which is believed to be the first interstellar object detected in our solar system, was simply another comet; however Loeb—the chairman of Harvard University's astronomy department—dismisses that assumption, as it relies too much on the "familiar."
"What would happen if a caveman saw a cellphone?" he wondered while talking to the New York Post. "He’s seen rocks all his life, and he would have thought it was just a shiny rock."

Loeb says there are two big details that suggest Oumuamua wasn't just a comet, but rather a piece of alien technology. The first detail is the object's dimensions, as it was determined to be "five to 10 times longer than it was wide." Loeb argues the cigar-like shape isn't typical for a natural space object.

But the theoretical physicist says the biggest detail that supports his theory is Oumuamua's movement.

"The excess push away from the sun, that was the thing that broke the camel’s back," he said.

Loeb explains that the sun's gravitational force would cause a natural object to move faster as it approaches, and eventually push the object back, causing it to move slower as it moves away. Loeb points out that this didn't occur with Oumuamua, which accelerated "slightly, but to a highly statistically significant extent" as it moved further and further away.

"If we are not alone, are we the smartest kids on the block?" Loeb asked. "If there was a species that eliminated itself through war or changing the climate, we can get our act together and behave better. Instead, we are wasting a lot of resources on Earth fighting each other and other negative things that are a big waste."

Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth is set to hit shelves Jan. 26.

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 2:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote


An update on the phenomena of the century :

Jan. 31—In October 2016, a reddish cigar-shaped rock, a quarter-mile across and as long as two miles, tumbled through our solar system.

The rock, dubbed "Oumuamua" (Hawaiian for "scout") by astronomers, came from the direction of the star Vega and had passed closest to the sun in September before it was discovered by telescope from Maui.

Such objects traverse our heavens periodically, but this one was different. It surprised scientists with its jerking motions as it left the solar system, prompting speculation that it was a strange comet, propelled perhaps by evaporating gases on its surface.

But astronomers detected no evidence of gases on Oumuamua.

A year after Oumuamua left our solar system, Avi Loeb, chairman of Harvard's astronomy department, co-published a paper in the widely respected Astrophysical Journal of Letters. Loeb argued that Oumuamua might have been evidence of alien technology.

The paper raised eyebrows and elicited cynicism from many of Loeb's colleagues, but he has persisted.

Recently, Loeb continued to push his theory, publishing a new book, "Extraterrestrial," in which he pleads for humanity to keep an open mind about the possibility of intelligent life among the stars.

"Are we, both scientists and lay people, ready? Is human civilization ready to confront what follows our accepting the plausible conclusion, arrived at through evidence-backed hypotheses, that terrestrial life isn't unique and perhaps not even particularly impressive?" Loeb asks in the book's introduction.

"I fear the answer is no, and that prevailing prejudice is a cause for concern."

To drive home his point, Loeb points to the 17th century, when church officials refused to look into Galileo's telescope, fearing that they'd see evidence contrary to their view of man, the world and God.

Loeb's point is salient. If we don't believe that something could exist, we're not likely to see it. On the other hand, believing without healthy cynicism can cause us to imagine something that doesn't exist.

In June 2021, just after a U.S. intelligence report about UFOs was released, the Pew Research Center published a survey showing that 65% of Americans believe it's likely that intelligent life exists beyond Earth. Just over half of respondents said that UFOs reported by members of the military are definitely or probably evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

I doubt that UFOs come from outer space, but the fruits of scientific exploration — particularly the discovery of Earthlike planets in other solar systems — increasingly point to the overwhelming likelihood that intelligent life is scattered across the universe.

It would also seem highly probable that intelligent life that is much different than ours and doesn't require Earthlike conditions exists out there, as well.

Who's to say whether Oumuamua might have been an alien vessel? Like Loeb, I prefer to ponder that it might have been.

Editor Scott Underwood's column is published Mondays in The Herald Bulletin.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 11:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
Jan. 31—In October 2016, a reddish cigar-shaped rock, a quarter-mile across and as long as two miles, tumbled through our solar system.

I'm curious about that statement. How do they know that Oumuamua is a "reddish cigar-shaped rock", since the image below is all you get when you Google "best telescope image of Oumuamua".

Oumuamua is the dot inside the blue circle.



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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 3:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
How do they know that Oumuamua is a "reddish cigar-shaped rock",

Colors can be derived from the wavelength of the reflected light. Keep in mind that the Doppler effect will skew to the red on receding objects (to the blue on approaching ones).
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 5:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Ah-ah! Thanks, Gord!

I did discover that the astronomers still can't agree on whether Oumuamua was a rocky object like an asteroid, or an icy object like a comet.

The "rocky object" folks point out that if it was a comet, there would have been more evidence of "out gassing" — which Oumuamua didn't seem to be doing.

However, the "icy object" folks point out that Oumuamua's movement through the solar system exhibited unexpected movements that could only be explained by out gassing which pushed the object around in unexpected ways.

The bottom line is simply this; Oumuamua doesn't really do anything to suggest it's an aliens spacecraft which wandered through the solar system — but it does seem to be a strange object which exhibits an odd combination of behaviors that resemble both comets and asteroids! Shocked

So, what shall we call it? Confused

An Asteromet?

Or a Cometoid?

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whatever it was, it's one of the most "strange" objects ever detected. What's even stranger about it is how much it resembles Arthur Clarkes' RAMA!

Quote:
But the theoretical physicist says the biggest detail that supports his theory is Oumuamua's movement.

"The excess push away from the sun, that was the thing that broke the camel’s back," he said.

Loeb explains that the sun's gravitational force would cause a natural object to move faster as it approaches, and eventually push the object back, causing it to move slower as it moves away. Loeb points out that this didn't occur with Oumuamua, which accelerated "slightly, but to a highly statistically significant extent" as it moved further and further away.

Call it whatever you will.....
I'll just call it MYSTERY!

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 10:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More reflection on our intersteller friend....

Remember that weird, oblong interstellar object called “Oumuamua” that entered our solar system back in 2017 and left shortly after? One Harvard professor has been thinking long and hard about that thing.

Particularly, he’s thinking about Oumuamua’s seemingly impossible acceleration and changing of course. Those are things that asteroids or comets can’t do. But what could?

Aliens.?

There are reasons why this Harvard professor suspects Oumuamua was actually a spacecraft built by another intelligence from outside our solar system.

For starters, the professor cites how the object appeared to have “sudden acceleration that could not be attributed to gravitational forces.”

Then, as it left our system, it appeared to follow a trajectory that was not only unaffected by a mass as large as the sun, but cut directly through our system so as to easily leave.

One person who responded to the Professors post (On Tictok as Psychopoly) replied, “Yep but it had all the traits of a huge solar sail. We couldn’t study it well because we detected it when it was basically already leaving too fast.”

Regardless, there’s something particularly strange about this interstellar object, and it likely isn’t the last we’ll see in short order.... If you remember RAMA, it comes in triplicate!

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just a thought about why it would be "tumbling".
Perhaps to create centrifical force to cause an artificial gravity?

The "light sail" may be made of a completely non-reflective material like graphene. (Graphene has become a valuable and useful nanomaterial due to its exceptionally high tensile strength, electrical conductivity, transparency, and being the thinnest two-dimensional material in the world. A sheet of graphene can be ONLY ONE ATOM thick! It would also have extreme tensil strength!). Note also a property of graphene is transparency!

Deployed from a gimble in the middle of the object a lightsail could be furled out. Perhaps as it traveled through the solar system the sail was retracted only to be re-deployed as it passed the Sun to accelerate away.

This is one of the most amazing occurances of the century!

Also, it is so familiar to any reader of Arthur C Clarke! He was truly a visionary of the 20th Century as Jules Verne was of the 19th!

"For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible."


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

NEWLY REVISED and EXPANDED version of my original post. I hope you'll enjoy it and add a reply.

(Otherwise how will I know anybody read it?) Confused
__________________________________________________

Great post, Gord! Very Happy

The lightsail idea got me excited, because I visualized the gigantc, circular solar sail which accelerated Oumuamua as it sped away from the sun.

But I wondered why a lightsail that would be thousands of time larger than Oumuamua hadn't been observed.

After reviewing a few articles, I was reminded that all we ever saw of Oumuamua was a dot of light which varied in brightness every eight hours by a factor of 10.

Since that's the case, the artist's conceptions which show it looking like this are pure conjecture!






After all, the only reason we think it's an elongated shape is because astronomer's decided it had to be a long thin object which was tumbling, and this caused it to be viewed from different angles.





I submit that this is an unwarranted assumption. by gum! Mad

There are other possible reasons for the variation in brightness — like the possibility that it's spherical, with one side being more reflectent than the other.

For example, one of Saturn's moons (Iapetus) has a light side and a dark side (sort of like the Force Very Happy), and it varies greatly in brightness as it rotates.






Hey, if you think THAT'S weird, Saturn has another moon called Mimas which looks like the Death Star when photographed with the light just right!





My point is that astronomers decided that Oumuamu was shaped like a wind-blown cigar just because it explained the regular variations in brightness.

Gord Green wrote:
One person who responded to the Professor's post (On Tictok as Psychopoly) replied, “Yep, but it had all the traits of a huge solar sail.".

We couldn’t study it well because we detected it when it was basically already leaving too fast.”

Regardless of it's shape, however, the lightsail idea deserves consideration, because there's no question that Oumuamu's acceleration away from the sun was weirder than a skunk that smelled like Old Spice! :spice:

If Oumuamu (regardless of its shape) were attached to a lightsail, then sunlight would push it away from the sun after it looped around and headed back into interstellar space. And since the lightsail would have to be far larger than the object itself, the light we observed would be from the large and highly reflectent sail — NOT from the object it was attached to!

Remember, The Pan-STARRS1 Near-Earth Object survey (SST) first spotted Oumuamu after it rounded the sun and was headed away from us.






That might have been caused by the fact the lightsail was not deployed by the object until it rounded the sun and looped back outward, when the sail could begin accelerating the spacecraft.

Prior to that, the spacecraft protected the sail from meteoroids as it raced through the space-junk rich region occupied by the three inner planets.

Please note: Data from the SST determined that Oumuamua was ten times as reflective as any comets that exist within our solar system.

And yet that same data indicates that the length might be 1,440 feet (440 meters) — or it might just be 320 feet (100 meters) long. Rolling Eyes

Okay, hold on a second. We really have no idea how big Oumuamua is. It might be a fairly small object . . . even though it's ten times brighter than any comet! Shocked

Guys, to me the best theory that fits the facts is that Oumuamua is a spacecraft which we only spotted when it headed away from the sun, 15 million miles away, and it deployed a gigantic solar sail which finally made it visible.

But wait . . . why did it vary so much in brightness by a factor of 10 every 8 hours?

Well, I'm really reaching here, but suppose the lightsail's efficiency was augmented every 8 hours by a burst of laser light from the front of the spacecraft whenever the ship's reactor stored up enough energy.

This periodic "power punch" to the lightsail might cause it to undulate, somewhat like a jellyfish as it pulls itself through the water.



__________




The undulation would temporarily increase the concave curvature of the sail, thus altering the way the light was reflected back towards us.

I discovered a site called ACS.org which states that "curved" (concave) solar sails were necessary for interstellar flights. Here's why.
__________________________________________________

We argue that light sails with nanometer-scale thicknesses that are rapidly accelerated to relativistic velocities by lasers must be significantly curved in order to reduce their intrafilm mechanical stresses and avoid tears.



Put all this together and it's easy to see why the light we observed from Oumuamua varied by a factor of 10 every 8 hours.

Cool idea, huh? Cool

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________________________

Here's a fine example of the difference between the way science fiction writers think, compare to scientists.

A science fiction writer likes to look at all the evidence and consider the possibilities by thinking outside the box. Cool

A scientist looks at all the evidence and considers ways to cram it all into the box! Rolling Eyes

Consider the excerpts from an article about Oumuamua, which I've intersperse with my ow reactions as a science fiction writer.

We'll start with what The Scientists are thinking.

__________________________________________________

Could ‘Oumuamua Be an Extraterrestrial Solar Sail?

October 31, 2018 by Matt Williams

On October 19th, 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System-1 (Pan-STARRS-1) in Hawaii announced the first-ever detection of an interstellar asteroid, named 1I/2017 U1 (aka. ‘Oumuamua).

In the months that followed, multiple follow-up observations were conducted that allowed astronomers to get a better idea of its size and shape, while also revealing that it had the characteristics of both a comet and an asteroid.

Interestingly enough, there has also been some speculation that based on its shape, ‘Oumuamua might actually be an interstellar spacecraft. Breakthrough Listen even monitored it for signs of radio signals!

A new study by a pair of astronomers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has taken it a step further, suggesting that ‘Oumuamua may actually be a light sail of extra-terrestrial origin.
__________________________________________________

The Science Fiction Writer: Well, so far, so good. A few bold folks were brave enough to suggest that the asteroid/comet that was wandering through the solar system was not actually an asteroid or a comet . . . and furthermore, it wasn't wandering either! Shocked
__________________________________________________

The Scientists: The study — “Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?“, which recently appeared online — was conducted by Shmuel Bialy and Prof. Abraham Loeb.

To recap, ‘Oumuamua was first spotted by the Pan-STARRS-1 survey 40 days after it made its closest pass to the Sun (on September 9th, 2017). At this point, it was about 0.25 AU from the Sun (one-quarter the distance between Earth and the Sun), and already on its way out of the Solar System.

In that time, astronomers noted that it appeared to have a high density (indicative of a rocky and metallic composition) and that it was spinning rapidly.
__________________________________________________

The Science Fiction Writer: Whoa there, fellars! Let's make sure we're gettin' our facts straight.

One aspect of Oumuamua this article doesn't mention is the way the object's brightness fluctuated a great deal, and quite regularly too — it became ten time times brighter every eight hours!

What the heck made it do that!? Shocked

The clever scientists came up with a theory to explain this amazing aspect of Oumuamua, and it was based on . . . well, it was mostly based on the fact that they really needed a theory. Confused

And so, Oumuamua suddenly became long and skinny and whirling around.

There was no evidence of this, but it solved their problem, because it explained the fluctuation in brightness. Oumuamua was obviously shaped like a tree trunk and spinning end-over-end — thus giving us a constantly shifting viewpoint, as shown below.






But remember, the only reason they assume it was a skinny, spinning object was because the brightness varied so dramatically! No other real evidence indicated either the shape, the spin, or even its approximate size.

Also, notice how the animation above shows Oumuamua squirting gases out in all directions while it spins. And yet the astronomers clearly stated that no "outgassing" had been detected, even when it was closer to the sun. Confused

In short: they came up with a reason for the variation in brightness and decided it just HAD to look like this —.






— when in fact what it actually looked like through the telescopes is THIS!





Obviously, pictures just don't do it justice, eh? Laughing
__________________________________________________

The Scientists: While it did not show any signs of outgassing as it passed close to our Sun (which would have indicated that it was a comet), a research team was able to obtain spectra that indicated that ‘Oumuamua was more icy than previously thought.

Then, as it began to leave the Solar System, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped some final images of ‘Oumuamua that revealed some unexpected behavior.


_________ VLT sees `Oumuamua getting a boost


___________


After examining the images, another international research team discovered that ‘Oumuamua had increased in velocity, rather than slowing down as expected.

The most likely explanation, they claimed, was that ‘Oumuamua was venting material from its surface due to solar heating (aka. outgassing). The release of this material, which is consistent with how a comet behaves, would give ‘Oumuamua the steady push it needed to achieve this boost in velocity.
__________________________________________________

The Science Fiction Writer: Okay, lemme get this straight.

It's long and skinny and spinning like a propeller, so that makes it vary in brightness. And it's speeding up because its got little "rockets" along the sides, caused by outgassing — even though no out gassing has been detected.

Frankly I have a serious problem with that idea.

If it's doing loop-the-loops through space, then the little gas jets are firing in all directions! So, how the hell could this "give ‘Oumuamua the steady push it needed to achieve this boost in velocity" — as it headed straight out into space?

Fortunately, two bright scientists came to our rescue. Very Happy
__________________________________________________

The Scientists: Bialy and Loeb offer a counter-explanation.

If ‘Oumuamua were in fact a comet, why then did it not experience outgassing when it was closest to our Sun? In addition, they cite other research that showed that if outgassing were responsible for the acceleration, it would have also caused a rapid evolution in ‘Oumuamua’s spin (which was not observed).
__________________________________________________

The Science Fiction Writer: Ah, at last! A voice of reason cries out in the wilderness! Smile

Except for a few minor glitches. Sad

Even though they discount the outgassing (which is good), they seem to buy into the unproven assumption that Oumuamua is spinning — which is based solely on the variation in brightness. The article even adds "which was not observed" after the comment on the spin.

But wait! Bialy and Loeb prove themselves to be "smarter than the average bear" (as Yogi would say), when they proposed this. Very Happy
__________________________________________________

The Scientists: Basically, Bialy and Loeb consider the possibility that ‘Oumuamua could in fact be a light sail, a form of spacecraft that relies on radiation pressure to generate propulsion — which is what Breakthrough Starshot is working on.

Similar to what is planned for Starshot, this light sail may have been sent from another civilization to study our Solar System and look for signs of life. As Prof. Loeb explained to Universe Today via email:

“We explain the excess acceleration of `Oumuamua away from the Sun as the result of the force that the sunlight exerts on its surface."

[The email continues below.]

"For this force to explain the measured excess acceleration, the object needs to be extremely thin, of an order a fraction of a millimeter in thickness, but tens of meters in size. This makes the object lightweight for its surface area and allows it to act as a light-sail. Its origin could be either natural (in the interstellar medium or proto-planetary disks) or artificial (as a probe sent for a reconnaissance mission into the inner region of the Solar System).”
__________________________________________________

The Science Fiction Writer: Now we're gettin' somewhere!

And notice that the statement completely discounts both the unproven long/thin shape, the alleged spin, and the unobserved outgassing. Very Happy

Hooray for our side! Mr. Green

Bear in mind that I've been proposing a spacecraft that could, on command, deploy a gigantic lightsail when needed — such as after it entered the solar system and rounded the sun before heading back towards interstellar space.

However, what Bialy and Loeb describe seems to be the lightsail only, without regard to a spacecraft that would extend or retract it.

With that in mind, the next statement below is a bit confusing.
__________________________________________________

The Scientists: Based on this, Bialy and Loeb went about calculating the likely shape, thickness, and mass-to-area ratio that such an artificial object would have.

They also attempted to determine whether this object would be able to survive in interstellar space, and whether or not it would be able to withstand the tensile stresses caused by rotation and tidal forces.





Caption: Artist concept of lightsail craft approaching the potentially habitable exoplanet Proxima b.

What they found was that a sail which was only a fraction of a millimeter thick (0.3-0.9 mm) would be sufficient for a sheet of solid material to survive the journey through the entire galaxy — though this depends greatly on ‘Oumuamuam’s mass density (which is not well-constrained).

Thick or thin, this sail would be able to withstand collisions with dust-grains and gas that permeate the interstellar medium, as well as centrifugal and tidal forces.
__________________________________________________

The Science Fiction Writer: Well, darn it — here again we see the scientists trying to stuff the facts into the box instead of thinking outside it. Rolling Eyes

First of all, the entire "artificial object" (as they referred to it) can't be composed of the lightsail alone.

There has to be a separate spacecraft (manned or automated) that includes a propulsion system which allows it to maneuver independently within a star system, without needing the light sail.

What they describe above sounds a bit like a sail boat which has plenty of sails . . . but no boat! Shocked

And the last part of the excerpt (shown below) seems completely wrong.

"Thick or thin, this sail would be able to withstand collisions with dust-grains and gas that permeate the interstellar medium, as well as centrifugal and tidal forces."

A lightsail is as fragile as cobwebs, so it would need to be protected from space debris in all high-risk areas — such as the region close to the sun during Oumuamua's 0.25 AU solar flyby.
__________________________________________________

The Scientists: As for what an extra-terrestrial light sail would be doing in our Solar System, Bialy and Loeb offer some possible explanations for that.

First, they suggest that the probe may actually be a defunct sail floating under the influence of gravity and stellar radiation, similar to debris from ship wrecks floating in the ocean. This would help explain why Breakthrough Listen found no evidence of radio transmissions.
__________________________________________________

The Science Fiction Writer: Wow. A "lost lightsail" that drifted into the solar system and whipped around the sun, then cruised off into the night like The Lone Ranger!

Ummm, right . . . Rolling Eyes

And the part about Breakthrough Listen not getting any signals from it proves nothing. Who knows what kind of communication devices an alien ship would use?

Thankfully the two scientists had other ideas that make more sense.
__________________________________________________

The Scientists: On the other hand, as Loeb told Universe Today, ‘Oumuamua could be an active piece of alien technology that came to explore our Solar System, the same way we hope to explore Alpha Centauri using Starshot and similar technologies.





Caption: IKAROS spaceprobe with solar sail in flight (artist’s depiction) showing a typical square sail configuration.

“The alternative is to imagine that Oumuamua was on a reconnaissance mission."

According to Loeb, there’s also the fact that ‘Oumuamua’s orbit brought it to within 0.25 AU of the Sun, which is a good orbit for intercepting Earth without experiencing too much solar irradiation. In addition, it came to within 0.15 AU of Earth, which could have been the result of orbital corrections designed to facilitate a flyby.
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The Science Fiction Writer: Well, it appears that Bialy and Loeb are seriously considering this idea and doing some serious work to back it up. The reference to "orbital corrections" to fly close by Earth shows that they agree with what I stated about a spacecraft being part of the lightsail.

If Oumuamua was an automated probe that surveyed our neighborhood and liked what it saw, perhaps it sent a "subspace message" back to the home world with a full report.

We might just get a visit from some out-of-towners one of these days!

Whether that turns out to be a good thing or not remains to be seen . . . Cool

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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Sep 28, 2022 12:19 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Top Harvard Astronomer Believes Aliens Have Tried to Contact Us

By Anna Wichmann March 15, 2022



Harvard astronomer Dr. Avi Loeb believes that aliens may have tried to contact us in 2017, when an object called ‘Oumuamua flew past Earth.

In a book published in early 2021, Loeb, who was the head of Harvard’s astronomy department, asserts that the object may have been extraterrestrial in origin.

When the elongated, red-colored object was spotted in space, both scientists and alien enthusiasts took notice. Not shaped like natural space objects like comets and asteroids, ‘Oumuamua was blunt in shape, measuring about a half mile in length.

The name ‘Oumuamua comes from the Hawaiian for “scout.”
Dr. Loeb believes aliens may be connected to ‘Oumuamua

While the majority of scientists who have studied the object believe it is natural in origin, Loeb argues that it wouldn’t be wise to rule out the alien hypothesis.

In his book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,” Loeb contends that ‘Oumuamua is unlike any other space object known to man, and may be the product of alien technology.

Loeb stated in an email to Motherboard that “The most exciting aspect of the possibility that ‘Oumuamua is weird and unlike any asteroid or comet that we had seen before is that it might be a product of an alien technology.

“If so, we might not be the ‘sharpest cookie in the jar’ or ‘the smartest kid on the block.’ We should search for additional interstellar objects to find out,” he continued.

He rejected the mainstream opinion that, although undoubtedly strange and unique, ‘Oumuamua was likely just a natural space object and not a product of aliens.

“Most of the mainstream astronomy community continued with ‘business as usual’ and ignored ‘Oumuamua’s anomalies. Some mainstream astronomers tried to explain the anomalies but needed to invoke objects that were never seen before, like a hydrogen iceberg or a ‘dust bunny,’ that are not likely to survive the long interstellar journey.”

For its part, NASA states that the object likely came from another solar system and did not behave like a comet in space. Astronomers have “never seen a natural object with such extreme proportions in the solar system before,” according to NASA.

When ‘Oumuamua was first charted in 2017, Loeb argued that the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia should listen for radio waves coming from the object to help determine if it was an attempt at contact from extraterrestrials, but no radio waves were discovered.

“My point is that it is very difficult to explain the weird properties of ‘Oumuamua with conventional natural processes, so studying objects of its type in the future will either educate us about an unusual natural source or about another civilizatioN. Let’s collect evidence, and not rely on prejudice,” he stated.

Loeb is an Israeli-American theoretical physicist and astronomer. He currently serves as the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard, and was the longest serving chair of the Department of Astronomy at the prestigious university.


____________Is Oumuamua An Alien Spaceship?


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 6:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Okay, guys, I think I've proved that our noble scientist have no idea what Oumuamua really is. They've guessed about its size, it's shape, it's alleged spin, and it's basic nature.

Most of them seem convinced that it's just a wacky rock which tumbled through the solar system and then left while farting out gases in all directions — which somehow made it speed up!

Folks, I'm no rocket scientists, but all these ideas have serious flaws. Rolling Eyes

If we throw out all the things we can't prove about the claims concerning this object, what are we left with?

With that in mind, I submit the following.
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~ It entered our solar system completely undetected until it rounded the sun and passed by the Earth at a distance of 0.15 AUs. But why was it not spotted prior to this if it was as bright as the articles have reported?

~ At the point it became visible, it's brightness fluctuated dramatically. Ever 8 hours is became 10 times brighter than any known comet! Bur nobody actually knows why!

~ As it moved away from the sun, it was traveling at 196,000 miles per hour — but then Oumuamua did the impossible! It defied the sun's gravity by increasing its speed!

~ The only known way this would be possible would be for Oumuamua to possess a propulsion system. Only an alien spacecraft could do this.

~ One possibility might be that the spacecraft was equipped with a "solarsail" which could be deploy to accelerate it's departure from the solar system using the sun's radiation.

~ Since nobody spotted Oumuamua until was headed away from the sun, perhaps what we actually saw was the reflected light for the giant lightsail! It would have been much lager than the alien spacecraft, and the lightsail would have been reflecting the sunlight back towards the Earth!

In other words, we've never even caught an actual glimpse of Oumuamua! We've just been gazing at the light from its solarsail. Shocked
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Please note, guys, that there is really no reason to assume that Oumuamua needed to utilize such a slow and simplistic propulsion method to travel between the stars.

I submit that Oumuamua could have been a much more advanced spacecraft, and all of our assumptions have been based on primitive ideas and outdated concepts. Our colleges in the the scientific community seem determined to keep the facts stuffed firmly "inside the box". Sad

However, we here at All Sci-Fi are willing to "think outside the box."

Gentlemen, consider the possibility that Oumuamua was a much more advanced than all the above articles are willing to admit!

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 9:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Oumuamua situation is very much evidence of an extra ordinary phenomena leading to very unusual conclusions.

The reason Oumuamua wasn't seen until it passed the Sun is because its' trajectory brought it into our Solar System from BEHIND the Sun! The bright light from the Sun made any reflected light washed out by the intensity of the sunlight. Then through most of its' initial entry in our system the Sun was AT ITS' BACK and therefore we could only see the dark backside until it moved into a better angle.

Still, all your points above are "right on!" the money!

There is more evidence that it was an artifical artifact . . . a "spaceship" from somewhere, sometime else.

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2022 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Fascinating, Captain Green! Very Happy

I wanted to read more about the approach, but I couldn't find a single article that verified your description of Oumuamua's approach from behind the sun. Sad

But I did find YouTube videos like the one below which depicted Oumuamua's approach. In fact, it also shows the close fly-by and the departure — and it includes the Earth's position during the entire journey. That's a crucial point.

Here's why. Very Happy

The graphic clearly demonstrates that Oumuamua dove down towards the orbital plane of the planets at a high angle. At that time, Earth was actually on the same side of the sun as Oumaumau. '

In fact, Oumaumau passed fairly close to Earth while approaching the sun — which was on the opposite side.

However, this was not it's "closet's approach".

That event occurred roughly six months later, when both Earth and Oumaumau had moved around to the opposite side of the sun!








After passing the Earth, it dove down under the sun (in relation to the orbital plane), and then curved around until it reached a point about equal to the distance of Venus' orbit, since it was now headed back out into space./size][size=12]






Then it passed below Earth's orbit at it's "closets approach" while it headed further out from the sun.





After passing Earth, it eventually reached a distance from us about half as far as Mars is from Earth at the closet approach of the two planets — 34 million miles.

And that's about the time we first spotted Oumaumau, 15 million miles away.

At that point, its flight path was angled upward, relative to the orbital plane. So, after crossing below Earth's orbit, it crossed above the orbit of Mars.






Here's a diagram that shows a "wide shot" of Oumaumau's path through the solar system.





Gord, the video indicates that we actually did have a good chance to spot Oumuamua as it approached Earth! But we simply didn't have telescopes pointed in the right direction, and that's a damn shame.

However, the fact that we didn't see it coming in — but we DID see it going out — is still consistent with my suggestion that Oumuamua was much brighter after it rounded the sun.

Perhaps this was because during it's outbound fight path the alien spacecraft had it's gigantic, reflectent lightsail deployed! Cool

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