Oumuamua: Mysterious interstellar asteroid ‘could be giant artificial solar sail sent by aliens looking for life’

Scientists at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics believe ‘Oumuamua’ – the first ever interstellar object spotted in our solar system – could be a giant light sail

The first ever interstellar object in the solar system might be an artificial light sail sent to look for signs of life, it’s claimed.

In a study released on Thursday, astronomers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics published their observations of an interstellar object known as ‘Oumuamua’.

According to the scientists, the rock – which is the first observed to enter our star system from another – received an unexpected boost in speed as it passed through the inner solar system last year.

Because the object seems to exhibit qualities associated with both asteroids and comets, the astronomers have speculated its unusual acceleration might be as a result of a ‘light sail of artificial origin’ being pushed by solar radiation.

The study ‘Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?’ 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.

In the report the astronomers wrote: “Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that ‘Oumuamua is a light sail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment.”

The asteroid was first spotted by the Haleakala observatory in Hawaii on October 19 last year.

The strange cigar-shape of the object and its unusual behaviour led many to speculate that it might be an alien artefact.

In the year since debate has raged in the scientific community as to whether ‘Oumuamua is a comet or an asteroid.

The object appeared to speed up as it left the solar system – suggesting it had omitted materials from its surface after being heated by the Sun in a way consistent with a comet.

However, because it did not go through a similar process when it was closest to the Sun, Bialy and Loeb have argued it is in fact a light sail – a form of spacecraft that relies on radiation pressure to generate propulsion

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.

“The alternative is to imagine that `Oumuamua was on a reconnaissance mission. The reason I contemplate the reconnaissance possibility is that the assumption that `Oumumua followed a random orbit requires the production of ~10^{15} such objects per star in our galaxy.”