Astronomers to check interstellar body for signs of alien technology

a reply to: ntech


Indeed - or lots of ketchup!

originally posted by: ntech
But, what do you do if it reacts to being signaled? They could be carrying cookbooks you know.

I'm willing to take that risk.

Besides, would being eaten by an alien be any worse a death than slowly decaying away from cancer in some nursing home?

a reply to: Blue Shift

oh I dont know

not sure how to embed vid

but

pit of sarlacc

www.bing.com...

originally posted by: Plotus
In other news, SETI was believed to pick up sounds from outer space that sounded for all the world like "FETCH", Observations from past the object seem to indicate a massively large object moving at breakneck speeds towards this object.

STOP trying to make FETCH happen Plotus, it's NOT gonna happen!

a reply to: LABTECH767

👍 on the long dead derelict vessel
Or not?

How did they not call it "Rama" ?

Here's a fun thought. What if it's a kinetic round fired in an interstellar war millions of years ago?

I've been playing Elite Dangerous lately and ponder how all those rounds I blast out with my gattling cannons will travel forever.

a reply to: bgerbger


Is this object connected with the hot ATS thread about "disclosure" coming any moment?

originally posted by: bgerbger
Yes, clickbait title from the Guardian, but interesting nonetheless.

Could it be aliens?

www.theguardian.com...

Astronomers are to use one of the world’s largest telescopes to check a mysterious object that is speeding through the solar system for signs of alien technology.

The Green Bank telescope in West Virginia will listen for radio signals being broadcast from a cigar-shaped body which was first spotted in the solar system in October. The body arrived from interstellar space and reached a peak speed of 196,000 mph as it swept past the sun.

Scientists on the Breakthrough Listen project, which searches for evidence of alien civilisations, said the Green Bank telescope would monitor the object, named ‘Oumuamua, from Wednesday. The first phase of observations is expected to last 10 hours and will tune in to four different radio transmission bands.

“Most likely it is of natural origin, but because it is so peculiar, we would like to check if it has any sign of artificial origin, such as radio emissions,” said Avi Loeb, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and an adviser to the Breakthrough Listen project. “If we do detect a signal that appears artificial in origin, we’ll know immediately.”

Avi is however hedging his bets.

“The more I study this object, the more unusual it appears, making me wonder whether it might be an artificially made probe which was sent by an alien civilization,” Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department and one of Milner’s advisers on Breakthrough Listen, wrote in the email to Milner.

It's very unlikely to be of aritificial origin, but if it is, groundbreaking news.

Also, what a name, Oumuamua. Could it be the Real Thing?

Don't get too close. Stay at least 1 parsec away.

a reply to: punkinworks10

I read a lot of sci fi in my teen's so probably not but just maybe and it would be cool, however if it is and it is dead there will of course be no signals for this radio dish to detect.

It could though be dormant and waiting for a signal from outside itself as well and may be large and dense enough to destroy a civilization IF it had a mean's to change it's heading then loop back around the sun shielding it's approach by then coming in on a vectored trajectory that kept the sun between it and any earth based observers until it was then too late and it could not be prevented from impacting our world, if there were predatory civilization's in the universe then that may be one way they could achieve the destruction of alien civilizations in which case it would be a controlled asteroid of some kind rather than a ship, drift by stars that may have habitable world's using them to slingshot it toward it's next target star and listen while it passed near to the star enough to warm it's dormant system up from the deep freeze of interstellar space for any signals indicating intelligence life then change heading after the initial fly past and return using the world's own star to hide it's return approach before sweeping around the star at high velocity and impacting the planet that the signal came from.

Of course we would notice that it had vanished from our observations of it, however that kind of maneuver at those velocity's would require a huge amount of fuel or material but if it is an asteroid weapon then it could use a mass driver nuclear plasma type engine were dense material form the asteroid is excavated then super heated in a reaction chamber of some kind, probably a fusion reactor turning it into a high pressure plasma which can then be released as thrust but that would require substantial hardware inside such an asteroid.

Or an ancient colony craft, a seed bank in space meant to colonize a world but due to the vast distances and un-predictable forces such as unknown gravitational influences and slight errors in calculations missed it's target world whose denizens then do not realize just how fortunate that they are it did.

Of course it is probably just a rock but a very peculiar rock.

I like the seed bank idea. Or maybe it's another civilization's version of the Voyager Golden Record and we are about to be introduced to the hottest underground sounds of Trappist-1.

I don't know what to make of the coincidence with the arrival of the annual Geminid meteor shower.
The asteroid 3200 Phaethon is said to be the parent of the Geminids, but where did that asteroid come from originally?
This new asteroid was said to resonate around a different solar system until recently. Maybe 3200 Phaeton had the same origin but left its orbital maelstrom earlier in history?

Good time to buy some flowers for Carl Sagan who passed away December 20, 1996.

Maybe it's a structural part of a large orbital platform or a Dyson sphere that was destroyed a billion years ago, or maybe it's looking for whales.

a reply to: coursecatalog

Or a planet killer! just say'in.

a reply to: LABTECH767
Long time sci fi guy here as well.

Nobody has brought up the fact that it is absorbing 96% of the light hitting it.

If it comes back we are in trouble

a reply to: punkinworks10

That would make it a boomerang!

The trajectory is so big we'll be pushing worms when it does come back! If we don't blow our selves up first...

(Gee, re-reading that is rather gloomy! Puppies!! )

a reply to: LABTECH767

That's the thing though. I'm a skeptic but in this case you really can't say it's probably just a rock because we don't observe rocks (asteroids) of those proportions at that size. And we have a sample size of millions upon millions to draw from in our own solar system. To reduce the probability even further, any event that is powerful enough to impart such high velocity to an asteroid of this shape would much sooner destroy it (from gravitational tidal forces or from the impact of a stellar shock).
So #1 it's shape is an affront to nature and physics, and #2 we don't see interstellar asteroids making close swings by our Sun.
When applying informed consideration honestly can we say that it is probably just a rock?

a reply to: inuk2600

So #1 it's shape is an affront to nature and physics

Not really, no.

#2 we don't see interstellar asteroids making close swings by our Sun.

Not since we've been paying much attention anyway. But it's not expected to be a common occurence.

When applying informed consideration honestly can we say that it is probably just a rock?

Yes. Honestly. It is probably a rock.

In any case:

An initial search for artificial signals coming from 'Oumuamua, the needle-shaped interloper that zoomed past Earth two months ago, have come up empty, scientists with the $100 million Breakthrough Listen project announced today (Dec. 14).

www.space.com...

a reply to: Phage

At some point probability breaks down. What is that point for you?
20:1?
30:1?
If it's proportions were 100:1 would you still say it is probably just a rock?
I think it's reasonable for probability to break down in this case.

a reply to: inuk2600

If it's proportions were 100:1 would you still say it is probably just a rock?

They aren't, so what's the point of asking?

But I've seen many odd shaped rocks. Particularly when they a pieces of larger rocks.