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Dr Jason Wright from Penn State University suggests that a broken alien spacecraft would move in exactly the same way as the interstellar comet, according to the Daily Mail.
Writing in his blog, Wright, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, says: "Such derelict craft would, if they are not travelling so fast that they escape the Galaxy, eventually "thermalise" with the stars and end up drifting around like any other interstellar comet or asteroid.
"In fact, since they [presumably] no longer have attitude control, one would expect that they would eventually begin to tumble, and if they are very rigid that tumbling might distinguish them from ordinary interstellar asteroids… and in fact, just because their propulsion is broken doesn't mean that their radio transmitters would be broken."
Wright suggests that the object could be a "Von Neumann probe" - a theoretical self-replicating spacecraft that visits star systems. He added: "Such a discovery would imply that there are lots of these things in the solar system at any given moment [even if they are deliberately targeting the sun, they are hard to spot and we'll miss most of them], and so lots of opportunities to study them."
His latest comments come ahead of a project later today in which scientists will use high-tech scanners to discover if Oumuamua was sent by an alien civilisation. The team of scientists, called Breakthrough Listen, will use the world's largest directable radio telescope, at Green Bank in West Virginia, to follow it for 10 hours today at 3pm ET
How many of you think that the government will step in if it turns out that Oumuamua is sending electromagnetic signals?
originally posted by: Painterz
Is it not going too slowly to be an advanced alien probe though?
originally posted by: Painterz
Is it not going too slowly to be an advanced alien probe though?
originally posted by: Painterz
Is it not going too slowly to be an advanced alien probe though?
"We know what 'Oumuamua really is just because we have detected other Denebian probes in the past. We already know embedding a beacon inside a rock is the best way to withstand the extreme environmental conditions of outter space. 'Oumuaumua comes exactly from the same region from where all Denebian probes are known to come. It has the same features we see in all other Denebian probes. But unlike what we have seen in the past, its flyby near the main Denebian swarm did not trigger a realignment of the other probes. This tells us that, for some reason, 'Oumuamua was either not intended to join the swarm or was experiencing a malfunction."
originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: shawmanfromny
You ask a particular question at the end of your post, and I think it is important to answer it, not because the information contained within the answer is interesting, but because it is nonetheless important.
You ask:
How many of you think that the government will step in if it turns out that Oumuamua is sending electromagnetic signals?
The answer, the only correct one is:
It does not matter what the opinion polls on this suggest, because no government on this Earth, or body comprised of representatives of many territories from the face of the world, has the power to do any damned thing what so ever, to stop the object, reach it, or interfere with any signalling that might be occurring.
The reasons I say this, are as follows.
1) At a peak speed of 196,000 mph, this object is far too fast for any spacecraft of which I am aware, to catch up with it, or a projectile to reach it in order to destroy it. Laser light could reach it, but there is, as far as I am aware, no laser powerful enough, with a tight enough beam, to be weaponised at the range necessary to damage the object concerned.
2) The signals it has already sent, having sped by our planet, will already be well on their way to their destination, about which we can do absolutely nothing.
3) We lack the technological sophistication to jam those signals, even if we had some how gotten forewarning of the objects capacity to send something.
So, in essence, what I am saying is that there is absolutely no reason that the government would "step in", there is no situation for them to step in to, because they have no power or agency in the matter at all. Their planes cannot reach it to bomb the source of the signal (assuming there is any signal at all), their warships cannot touch it with their nuclear weapons. The strongest rocketry and space craft we have, with the most advanced engines we can devise, will NEVER catch up to this thing. Governments therefore, have no power in the scenario, any more than they do to switch off the sun, or alter the orbit of Mars.
originally posted by: shawmanfromny
a reply to: TrueBrit
What I meant was...If the upcoming scan detects electromagnetic signals, proving the object is in fact an alien craft, would the government suppress this information? Would they want the general public to know that we're not alone in the universe and that this massive object is extraterrestrial in origin.
How many of you think that the government will step in if it turns out that Oumuamua is sending electromagnetic signals?