Oumuamua - The Next Great Project

[Dryson]

Ounuamua - the next great project
Astronomers believe that 'Oumuamua (the name means "messenger from afar arriving first" in Hawaiian) must have come from a solar system with at least one large gas giant planet in order for it to have been kicked out and set off across the universe. As of yet, all four candidate stars are planet-less — but that could always change. https://www.space.com/41928-where-did-oumuamua-come-from.html
With four candidate stars needing to be explored for the possible origins of Ounuamua the Ounuamua Project could be the next grand project to undertake. Four planets with a lot of content to provide for the channel in the form of discussions.

 

[Dryson]

Could the trajectory of Oumuamua be helpful in finding Planet X and the recent Goblin planets that were discovered? Since Planet X is thought to be well beyond the orbit of Pluto its gravitational influence on an object such as Oumuamua could be substantial.

 

[gblews]

Just read an article about this and was going to post it here. When it comes to questions about interstellar life, especially intelligent life, I am a staunch agnostic. But I do find Ourmuamua fascinating. That astronomers think it may have been launched by extraterrestrial beings is a mindblower.

It looks nothing like a comet and the fact that it sped up when the light of our sun hit it really piqued my interest. I’ll be following this story

 

[FreezeC77]

I am skeptical also because scientists have been known to "spin" their research in a way to generate more funding. I believe most possible probe missions to intercept need to launch in the next few years. Obviously getting a sample from an instellar object would be huge, but framing it as a possible alien probe might help get that funding.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Here is a technical paper that was published in an Astrophysics journal that looks to explain the unusual acceleration of Oumuamua, entitled "Could solar radiation pressure explain Oumuamua's peculiar acceleration?":
https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.11490

 

[XCV330]

I am skeptical also because scientists have been known to "spin" their research in a way to generate more funding. I believe most possible probe missions to intercept need to launch in the next few years. Obviously getting a sample from an instellar object would be huge, but framing it as a possible alien probe might help get that funding.

You could say that about any scientific paper. If we assume the fact (and always HAS been a fact, apart from a few early rich ones) that scientists need funding from outside sources other than their own piggy bank, and that that inherently flaws research, we clearly have learned virtually nothing from science in the last few hundred years.

But pointless luddism aside, there isn't much funding to be obtained on this. Whatever Oumuamua was, it's gone now and there's no way to find out if we had a visitor or not. If it was a visitor, the fact it didn't say hi is either ominous or depressing.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I don't mind framing it as a potential non-terrestrial probe, even though it almost certainly is not. If spacefaring non-terrestrial societies were common, it would be a potential probe. Since we have no idea how common they are, we need to check more of this ‘potential’ objects to rule them out before we learn how common non-terrestrial spacefaring entities are or aren't.

In other words, if certain conditions are met, it would be a potential probe even under the almost zero evidence to support such claim. But those conditions, unlikely as they are, represent one of the biggest questions ahead for humanity.

Given that we don't know their nature, physical remnants of non-terrestrial societies may be the only thing we'll ever run into: Radio signals may be undetected if energy-efficient, of high information density and directed; bio-signatures – once detected – will be unable to differentiate microbes from post-industrial societies; Dyson spheres are unlikely to exist for remote visual observation to be possible; the majority of those societies may be extinct. That would leave us looking for physical remnants, and we won't be looking for them outside of our Solar system any time soon, so all we're left hoping a derelict probe came swinging by.


Or, if there's life out there, where are the damn probes?

 

[XCV330]

The path that Oumuamua took was pretty perfect for a casual tour of the solar system. It IS A bit odd that the first extra-solar object ever found just happens to be passing through like that.

 

[rahullak]

Perhaps we should be READY next time to intercept such an extra-solar object. Landing a probe on the probe to get samples can give us some answers.

 

[XCV330]

Perhaps we should be READY next time to intercept such an extra-solar object. Landing a probe on the probe to get samples can give us some answers.

There's nothing that exists now or near term that would have caught up to Oumuamua. But it could have been studied in far more detail if it had been noticed earlier. All the more reason to have better tracking networks for small objects in the solar system.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Well, it does tell us one thing, we still have a lot to learn.

 

[publiusr]

Perhaps we should be READY next time to intercept such an extra-solar object. Landing a probe on the probe to get samples can give us some answers.

Well said.

Something to think about.

Robert Forward's sail concepts were staged. So, let's say a beam was directed at this alleged craft--rotaating for some unknown reason--a backspun release?

Could a breakthrough starshot mini-sail be launched backwards, towards Earth? The result would be an acceleration of the main craft.

Cue optical SETI?

 

[think]

maybe? I think we really should not Intercept these things as... they have their flight path that they are following and we would just "upset" the pre-planned interstellar trajectory of this spaceship... errr comet .. yeah

 

[rahullak]

A small ship landing on it won't change it's trajectory. But the decision to land can be taken after our craft gets close enough to make good observations on what it's made of.

Without getting closer to these things, there's no way we can conclude anything more. Even if we are visited 100s of times.

 

[think]

A small ship landing on it won't change it's trajectory. But the decision to land can be taken after our craft gets close enough to make good observations on what it's made of.

Without getting closer to these things, there's no way we can conclude anything more. Even if we are visited 100s of times.

that is true .. I guess most people are all for contacting these interstellar travelers ... but it might just be an intelligent virus.. that is just === spreading disease or the propagation of its viral existence? maybe a virus that is dormant like dead like but will wake up as in some science fiction scenarios that are out there.(I can think of two where they used this idea) === but I still think the Laissez-faire and mind our own business is best... === as we should've as explorers from europe to the Americas but --- we many never know the alternate reality if that had happened because .. it might just be unfathomable -- or just difficult to imagine.. you do know it was gone before we even knew it was from outside the solar system 000 with not a slight chance to put anything together fast enough to "check it out" but yeah these are the aftermaths of possible what ifs and in the event of it happening again... you know.

I guess since we know what to look for .. --- bizzare wobbles of outside this system in a comet that is going so fast ... it doesn't make sense as a comet --- or the thing even being interested in our sun to bounce off of and back to the edge of the solar system..(cause that is not where it is going)

 

[rahullak]

Well, there's a solution to the "We can't get there fast enough", you know.

1. Improve telescopes and search patterns to find extrasolar travelers as early as possible.
2. Have a drone in orbit of earth/sun/wherever beforehand. Whenever an interesting extrasolar object is detected, have the drone break orbit and attempt interception.

I know feasibility of design and funding is something to be considered, but there is an answer.

 

[think]

You know there has never been that extrasolar object === it is so rare.. that we get something like that... never have we ever heard of this before... it would freak us when comets came from outside to loop the sun.. but ---- Ever cept maybe when ,..., there was the supernova thing in the sky back when... === 1000 years ago. ---

I want to think of this object as like a --- thread between connecting this and that in the universe just weaving its way out and in of our system... like when they put extra threads in processors of a high core number. (maybe it is just early saturday and I am digressing)

 

[Santaman]

Oumuamua.. I think it is just a bigger version of the Black Knight Satellite! Now where's that damn tin foil!

 

[Mysterion]

NASA Astrobiologist Karen Meech gives TED Talk about Oumuamua:

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[XCV330]

Well, there's a solution to the "We can't get there fast enough", you know.

1. Improve telescopes and search patterns to find extrasolar travelers as early as possible.
2. Have a drone in orbit of earth/sun/wherever beforehand. Whenever an interesting extrasolar object is detected, have the drone break orbit and attempt interception.

I know feasibility of design and funding is something to be considered, but there is an answer.

1: A telescope is the best option, definately, and better early warning on objects in the solar system is good, anyway, in case of a potential asteroid strike.

2: It's not a matter of having something waiting to go. The object would have to be extremely close and therefore astronomically lucky, to the probe, and even then all that could be done is a flyby (or impact) as again, right now anyway, there's nothing that can match that kind of velocity, though there ideas from them. Oumuamua is flying along at the speed of what we might produce ourselves if we were to go all in on an unmanned star probe , and we don't yet have our own unmanned star probe to catch it.