A friend whines about being alone, and I remind you we're alone in the universe.

While we are here boiling in our own juice, floundering in the oceans of problems and completely paying no attention to what is happening over our heads, he came to us. alien. The visitor is not visible to the eye, but astronomers are closely monitoring his movements. He also has a name - Oumuamua, which is translated from Hawaiian as "messenger".



GettyImages When Oumuamua was spotted, scientists were shaken by guesses that immediately crossed their minds. Based on observations, this object was not another asteroid that dangles inside the solar system. The first thought is an interstellar expedition! We have guests here! Editorial "Site" She will try to shed some light on this story.

Alien Guest This happened in 2017. See? asteroid It didn’t behave like an asteroid. After calculating its trajectory, astronomers grabbed their heads, the object flew to us from somewhere outside. This discovery shocked the scientific world, because nothing like this had happened before. Oumuamua immediately drew attention to himself. It turned out that he also has an unusual shape.



Data varies. According to one version, the object looks like a cigar. Its length is about 180 meters, and the diameter is 30 meters. According to another version, it looks more like a pancake or even a disk. In addition, both versions agree that Oumuamua has a much greater reflectivity than ordinary rock asteroids. Only metal can shine like that.

Another interesting feature. As it passed near the Sun, the object accelerated. Something similar happens with comets. The energy of our star sinks the ice, the vapors are thrown into space, and it works like this. jet-engine. But Oumuamua was different. It accelerated faster than expected. And astronomers did not notice any emissions.



Despite the fact that scientists have been able to explain such anomalies, physicist Avi Loeb is convinced that humanity is dealing with an interstellar ship, namely a solar sail, whose thickness is only 1 millimeter. Unfortunately, this hypothesis was met with a lot of skepticism. Avi Loeb is convinced that one object cannot combine such a number of accidents. There is very little chance of such coincidences.

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Physicist suggests Oumuamua is an alien prospector An artificial origin that was sent by an ancient civilization to explore space. According to preliminary data, it was launched 45 million years ago. Given the amount of time, that civilization has probably already disappeared. But humanity at the time of launch did not think to appear.

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But even so, denying the man-made origin of the object, according to Avi Loeb, is reckless. Oumuamua may be space junk, but its appearance in the solar system suggests that we are not alone in the universe. And who knows if this one could. solar-sailDriven by the solar wind, automatically take a picture of us? But the question is, will its creators get those pictures?

It so happened that Oumuamua was seen already when leaving the solar system. We caught up too late. Although scientists continue to collect a large amount of data about the visitor, they are clearly not enough to determine exactly what is really interstellar. It will remain a mystery. In the future, technology may allow us to catch up.



GettyImages The idea of being here alienVery attractive. It awakens fantasy and romanticism. However, it also requires very strong evidence. Skeptics claim that the speed of the sail is too small for an artificial object. It would take 2 million years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. Although it is affected by the solar wind, due to its mass, Oumuamua cannot get the necessary acceleration.

Based on ordinary logic, it makes no sense for aliens to launch such a probe. That would be completely impractical. So, most likely, this is just an ordinary stone of unusual shape, which by the will of fate got into our system. And now we have no choice but to wave 'Oumuamua goodbye.

Editorial

From the point of view of the modern physics of space and time, we, humanity, are most likely doomed to remain alone at all stages of our existence. Giant distances At the current technological level, they do not allow us to dream about any search and contact - here we would get to the moon or Mars. So for now, we're just sitting on the threshold of the universe and gazing at distant stars with delight.

Whatever it was, and the mysterious Oumuamua is not the first alien. Astronomers predict that there will be more of them soon. This is due to the fact that scientists are gradually improving our “eyes” – telescopes, and therefore we will see better, farther and sharper. Let's see what happens. Thank you for staying with us!

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