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 sa国际传媒淥umuamua,sa国际传媒� is the first object of sa国际传媒渋nterstellar originsa国际传媒� observed in our solar system.
sa国际传媒淥umuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earthsa国际传媒檚 vicinity by an alien civilization,sa国际传媒� researchers said.
NASA believes Oumuamua, which was discovered last fall by the University of Hawaiisa国际传媒檚 Pan-STARRS1 telescope, is about 400 metres long, and made up sa国际传媒渙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.sa国际传媒�
It is forecast to travel beyond Saturnsa国际传媒檚 orbit, as it shoots through space at a speed of 38.3 kilometers per second.
The Harvard studysa国际传媒檚 authors acknowledged that an alien space probe is a sa国际传媒渕ore exotic scenario,sa国际传媒� 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 itsa国际传媒檚 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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