Oumuamua

[4321lynx]

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻOumuamua

ʻOumuamua (/ʔoʊˌmuːəˈmuːə/, Hawaiian: [ʔowˌmuwəˈmuwə] (About this soundlisten)) is the first interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, on 19 October 2017, 40 days after it passed its closest point to the Sun. When first seen, it was about 33,000,000 km (21,000,000 mi; 0.22 AU) from Earth (about 85 times as far away as the Moon), and already heading away from the Sun.

ʻ

And Professor Avi Loeb's commentary on this.

(Avi Loeb, 56, is chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University and has published more than 700 papers on astrophysical phenomena).


http://www.spiegel.de/international...the-interstellar-body-oumuamua-a-1246803.html

 

[ryan]

I am just going to say it ... ALIENS!

 

[AirPoh]

Wikipedia

ʻOumuamua (/ʔoʊˌmuːəˈmuːə/, Hawaiian: [ʔowˌmuwəˈmuwə] (About this soundlisten)) is the first interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, on 19 October 2017, 40 days after it passed its closest point to the Sun. When first seen, it was about 33,000,000 km (21,000,000 mi; 0.22 AU) from Earth (about 85 times as far away as the Moon), and already heading away from the Sun.

ʻ

And Professor Avi Loeb's commentary on this.

(Avi Loeb, 56, is chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University and has published more than 700 papers on astrophysical phenomena).


http://www.spiegel.de/international...the-interstellar-body-oumuamua-a-1246803.html

I just read Rendezvous with Rama for the first time two weeks ago. Couldn't shake the similarities.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Found this article today.

Most scientists besides Loeb assume ‘Oumuamua is some sort of rock, be it an asteroid ejected from some star in meltdown hundreds of millions of years ago, or an icy comet wandering the interstellar void. But it’s moving too fast for an inert rock, Loeb points out— zooming away from the sun as if something is pushing it from behind. And if it’s a comet spewing jets of steam, the limited observations astronomers made of it showed no sign.

Loeb argues that ‘Oumuamua’s behavior means it can’t be, as is commonly imagined, a clump of rock shaped like a long potato, but rather an object that’s very long and no more than 1 millimeter thick, perhaps like a kilometer-long obloid pancake — or a ship sail — so light and thin that sunlight is pushing it out of our solar system.

Harvard’s top astronomer says an alien ship may be among us — and he doesn’t care what his colleagues think

Is it common knowledge that this object is moving too fast to be a rock and likely only a millimeter thick?

 

[DBT]

The tumbling motion suggests a natural object that was ejected from its own solar system millions of years ago.

 

[Treedbear]

...

Most scientists besides Loeb assume ‘Oumuamua is some sort of rock, be it an asteroid ejected from some star in meltdown hundreds of millions of years ago, or an icy comet wandering the interstellar void. But it’s moving too fast for an inert rock, Loeb points out— zooming away from the sun as if something is pushing it from behind. ...

...
Is it common knowledge that this object is moving too fast to be a rock and likely only a millimeter thick?

I've no idea what too fast to be a rock means, but if something is pushing it that implies it's accelerating. Is it?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

...

Most scientists besides Loeb assume ‘Oumuamua is some sort of rock, be it an asteroid ejected from some star in meltdown hundreds of millions of years ago, or an icy comet wandering the interstellar void. But it’s moving too fast for an inert rock, Loeb points out— zooming away from the sun as if something is pushing it from behind. ...

...
Is it common knowledge that this object is moving too fast to be a rock and likely only a millimeter thick?

I've no idea what too fast to be a rock means, but if something is pushing it that implies it's accelerating. Is it?

From the article I don't see where anyone says it's accelerating. But it definitely is moving faster than anything else and defies explanation, which is why Loeb says it can't be your standard space rock.

The article refers to some calculations he made that supports his claim that it is some type of light sail owing to its speed, and its speed away from the sun. He isn't claiming its a spacecraft but rather a piece of one, a remnant. He says so far no one has offered evidence that it isn't what he claims, but he is certainly willing to consider otherwise should that evidence happen.

 

[skepticalbip]

...

Most scientists besides Loeb assume ‘Oumuamua is some sort of rock, be it an asteroid ejected from some star in meltdown hundreds of millions of years ago, or an icy comet wandering the interstellar void. But it’s moving too fast for an inert rock, Loeb points out— zooming away from the sun as if something is pushing it from behind. ...

...
Is it common knowledge that this object is moving too fast to be a rock and likely only a millimeter thick?

I've no idea what too fast to be a rock means, but if something is pushing it that implies it's accelerating. Is it?

That clip is poorly written so difficult to understand exactly what they are trying to say.

The 'too fast' is how it was identified as an object from outside our solar system. Its velocity relative to the sun is greater than the solar system's escape velocity which means that it is not in an orbit about the sun but just passing through. Its velocity relative to the sun should be decreasing as it continues to move out of the sun's gravity well but should continue to be traveling greater than escape velocity. I have read that it isn't slowing as much as expected which means it must be experiencing some force pushing it away. But I haven't seen any numbers so have no idea what the difference between expected and measured velocity is (is it within measurement error?). I have heard that it may be more pancake shaped than cigar shaped but no suggestion of it only being 1mm thick. The pancake shaped rock could mean that the solar wind could exert more pressure forcing it away from the sun than would be expected from a cigar shaped rock.

Pancake shaped??? AHA, a flying saucer and a kilometer would make it a flying saucer mother ship....


ETA:
I got curious so did a quick google search. I found another possible interpretation that has the merit of making sense of the greater than expected velocity by reducing the density of the object the solar wind is acting on. It suggest that it could be a dust cloud rather than a rock.

https://www.space.com/43229-oumuamua-monstrous-fluffy-comet-dust.html

'Oumuamua, the first known visitor from beyond our solar system, is long gone, but it's still leaving scientists guessing. A new explanation proposes that the strange object was a "monstrous fluffy dust aggregate" — that's a technical term, apparently — produced by a busted-up comet.
That's the explanation laid out by Zdenek Sekanina, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a new, unpublished paper. The explanation draws on observations of comets breaking apart as they get closer to the sun.

... snip ...

 

[Treedbear]

I've no idea what too fast to be a rock means, but if something is pushing it that implies it's accelerating. Is it?

From the article I don't see where anyone says it's accelerating. But it definitely is moving faster than anything else and defies explanation, which is why Loeb says it can't be your standard space rock.

There are many objects in our galaxy moving at much higher speeds relative to the sun and planets. It does seem unusual that it's moving at a velocity at which it could be flung back along the path from which it came. Why not off at some random vector? Aside from that coincidence I still don't see why it can't be a rock or other natural object.

 

[Treedbear]

I've no idea what too fast to be a rock means, but if something is pushing it that implies it's accelerating. Is it?

That clip is poorly written so difficult to understand exactly what they are trying to say.

The 'too fast' is how it was identified as an object from outside our solar system. ...

Well then it was poorly written because inert rocks can be moving at much faster speeds if they aren't from our solar system.