A cigar-shaped object seen floating through space could be an alien probe, Harvard researchers suggest.
In a study published last week by the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, researchers say the object, dubbed B次元官网网址淥umuamua,B次元官网网址� is the first object of B次元官网网址渋nterstellar originB次元官网网址� observed in our solar system.
B次元官网网址淥umuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to EarthB次元官网网址檚 vicinity by an alien civilization,B次元官网网址� researchers said.
NASA believes Oumuamua, which was discovered last fall by the University of HawaiiB次元官网网址檚 Pan-STARRS1 telescope, is about 400 metres long, and made up B次元官网网址渙f rock and possibly metals, has no water or ice, and that its surface was reddened due to the effects of irradiation from cosmic rays over hundreds of millions of years.B次元官网网址�
It is forecast to travel beyond SaturnB次元官网网址檚 orbit, as it shoots through space at a speed of 38.3 kilometers per second.
The Harvard studyB次元官网网址檚 authors acknowledged that an alien space probe is a B次元官网网址渕ore exotic scenario,B次元官网网址� and said Oumuamua could be either naturally occurring or accidental space debris, albeit still from a mystery source.
However, its mass-to-area ratio makes it unlikely that itB次元官网网址檚 merely an oddly shaped asteroid or comet.
Either way, researcher said it was too late to photograph Oumuamua with existing telescopes or to chase it with chemical rockets.
Instead, researchers, and the rest of us, will have to wait for a new Oumuamua to appear before we can discover what it really is.
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