Scientists, and most rational people, have always asked the question “are we the only ones in this whole wide universe?”. Because if we exist, others must exist. Cinema has time and again tried to answer that question, sometimes were crudely and often very elegantly.
Now, while filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve and Ridley Scott can heave a sigh of relief, scientists can start digging more into the subject because we might’ve stumbled upon proof of extra-terrestrial life.
According to CNN, a team of astronomers from Harvard University have suggested that an extra-terrestrial object may have entered our solar system. They wrote in their paper, which has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, that,
“Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.”
Yes, you might be chuckling at the name, but Oumuamua actually means “a messenger that reaches out from the distant past” in Hawaiian. See, now that’s deep.
Oumuamua was first discovered in October 2017 by the Pann-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. But scientists couldn’t decide what it exactly was. Sometimes they said it was a comet, then they said it was an asteroid. And now, they’ve categorised it into a new class of “interstellar objects”. Additionally, they’ve said that the dark-red object, which is 10 times as long as it’s wide and travelling at 1,96,000 mph, might’ve an “artificial origin”.
After assuming that it’s indeed an extra-terrestrial object, the scientists began looking into what its purpose is. And after theorising about the objects “excess acceleration”, they came to a conclusion.
Could Oumuamua Be an Extra-Terrestrial Solar Sail? – Universe Today https://t.co/UaikL0aYnu @storybywill @universetoday pic.twitter.com/vPynSmOoY4
— Universe Today (@universetoday) October 31, 2018
“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.”
Abraham Loeb, professor and chair of astronomy and Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral scholar at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who wrote the paper, further added that,
“Light-sails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by our own civilization, including the IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative. The light-sail technology might be abundantly used for transportation of cargos between planets or between stars.”
Netizens who came to know about this were visibly excited about the proof of other life forms in space.
1. You are excused.
I know there’s a lot going on right now but… excuse me https://t.co/SicgVqmuzv
— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) November 6, 2018
2. Let’s hope they are not.
I've been busy today but: are you shitting me https://t.co/KNFP0jW8bj
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) November 6, 2018
3. Oh! Then this can’t be good.
Look. They touched the Orb. That sent the signal. Everything after that was automated.
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) November 6, 2018
4. Ganjediyon ko harr jagah bas ganja dikhta hai.
Is it a space blunt? The universe out here getting high.
— Johnathan Carr (@carrjohnathan) November 21, 2017
5. Good luck with that.
Are you sure it's not trying to communicate with our whales? (Kudos if you got this reference)
— cafeenfre 🆘️ 🌊🌊🌊 (@cafeenfre) November 21, 2017
6. Woah! Calm down now, sir.
Aliens are real and I’m going to suck them off https://t.co/zma9gIiHkd
— Ben Jenkins (@bencjenkins) November 6, 2018
Apparently, Oumuamua is the first object that’s been seen in our solar system that’s known to have originated from somewhere else. Fortunately, according to NASA Planetary Defense Officer Lindsey Johnson, they’re analysing it through their sky survey telescope. You know, in case it decides to fire a death cannon and blow us all to hell.
So, what do you think? Is that thing a friendly? Is it dead? Or is human civilisation looking at its end?