Alien Spaceship Spotted!?

Aliens?!

An object named "Oumuamua" was seen from a telescope in Hawaii last year. Firstly it was called a comet and then an asteroid but now scientists aren't quite sure what to make of it.

A paper from Harvard Smithsonian Center suggests the object may be some kind of alien probe. This is because it experienced an unexpected boost in speed as it went through and out of our solar system in January. It may be the case that Oumuamua is a light sail and was being propelled by solar radiation. This would explain its weird shape and orbit.

Most scientists are remaining skeptical for a huge number of reasons however.

• Solar sails can't change direction after they've been launched and so if Oumuamua was a solar sail, we should be able to trace it back to its origin but so far it has no obvious origin.
• The spectral data from Oumuamua also looks like that of an asteroid or comet rather than the spectral data a solar sail. 
• Oumuamua travels in a complex spin but a solar sail should have a smoother path and a more obvious radiation driven acceleration.

Scientists think that that the object was being heated unevenly and this caused the weird acceleration as this kind of thing has happened in the past.

Currently this explanation has not been confirmed and so scientists will continue to try and find a concrete explanation by analyzing old data since the object has left our view.


Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post or any of my others, follow and subscribe to my blog. Feel free to discuss anything related to this post or ask questions in the comments below.


Did you see my previous post? Click the link below to check it out

General Relativity vs Quantum Mechanics