Oumoamua

[SciFi Chick]

Thoughts? Rommie - I'm looking at you.

[Rommie]

It's been a fun few weeks of speculation. Basically, it's pretty darn likely that it's a space rock. We know after all that tons of them are flung out into the interstellar void, and this just so happens to be the first time we found one. (Technologically, it wasn't easy with previous surveys to find, but with a recent upgrade to one the estimate is one a year of these should be coming through our solar system that we could find.) The fun thing though is this is the first time in my memory we can't definitively say it's not artificial, so we've been having fun speculating and joking about this lately in the department.

I really wish they found an illustrator who wouldn't just make it look like a space turd in all the articles though.

[Thumper]

I've heard the depictions described a lot worse than a "space turd."

[SciFiFisher]

I love science. That is all.

[geonuc]

'Oumuamua, isn't it?

[Thumper]

That's why I had trouble with it. My google search turned up a bunch of Arabic returns until I realized it was about the asteroid that passed by us a month or so ago. I hadn't remembered when I read the articles that they gave it such an incredibly difficult name.

[SciFi Chick]

I have trouble with my eyesight and typing on a phone. And it is a difficult name.

[Thumper]

One of the biggest things holding me back from a smartphone. I cannot type on a touchscreen.

[Sigma_Orionis]

One of the biggest things holding me back from a smartphone. I cannot type on a touchscreen.

Can't say I blame you

[geonuc]

One of the biggest things holding me back from a smartphone. I cannot type on a touchscreen.

You'll pick it up well enough. I still can't do the rapid double-thumb typing that youngsters seem to have mastered. Yet I manage to get by.

[SciFi Chick]

So, apparently, Harvard scientists are now speculating that this is of alien origin? Really? Wow.

[geonuc]

So, apparently, Harvard scientists are now speculating that this is of alien origin? Really? Wow.

That would be tres cool, but if true, I'd wonder why said aliens would have their light sail spacecraft just blow through a solar system without so much as a how do you do?

[Rommie]

I saw that. How do I put this. Theorists, particularly the individuals on the paper, are pretty well known for taking speculation and adding some numbers to it to get some discussion going. This one in particular is just a draft paper preprint, not an accepted thing in the journal.

So, take it with a mountain of salt as big as the original asteroid.

[SciFi Chick]

I saw that. How do I put this. Theorists, particularly the individuals on the paper, are pretty well known for taking speculation and adding some numbers to it to get some discussion going. This one in particular is just a draft paper preprint, not an accepted thing in the journal.

So, take it with a mountain of salt as big as the original asteroid.

Well, that's a relief.

[SciFi Chick]

So, apparently, Harvard scientists are now speculating that this is of alien origin? Really? Wow.

That would be tres cool, but if true, I'd wonder why said aliens would have their light sail spacecraft just blow through a solar system without so much as a how do you do?

I know, right?!

[SciFiFisher]

so... Should I cancel the Alien Invasion Doomsday Prepper Party?

[pumpkinpi]

I saw that. How do I put this. Theorists, particularly the individuals on the paper, are pretty well known for taking speculation and adding some numbers to it to get some discussion going. This one in particular is just a draft paper preprint, not an accepted thing in the journal.

So, take it with a mountain of salt as big as the original asteroid.

I was hoping for a succinct reply such as this from either you or the BA. I wouldn't be surprised if we get calls at the planetarium from press about this.

[Rommie]

I saw that. How do I put this. Theorists, particularly the individuals on the paper, are pretty well known for taking speculation and adding some numbers to it to get some discussion going. This one in particular is just a draft paper preprint, not an accepted thing in the journal.

So, take it with a mountain of salt as big as the original asteroid.

I was hoping for a succinct reply such as this from either you or the BA. I wouldn't be surprised if we get calls at the planetarium from press about this.

Yeah, to add to this, I didn't do more than glance through the abstract but one thing I do not get in the context of a solar sail is the asteroid was definitely observed to be tumbling. There is no universe in which you would do that with a solar sail, and it implies you have lost control of the thing.

I mean I guess you can always argue "it was a solar sail and they just lost control of it!" but then I'm going to invoke Occam's Razor and ask you which is more likely.

Also, a decent part of the argument is "these are so rare, what are the odds it would be random!" Well, part of the fun with Oumoamua was the all-sky survey capable of finding it only got in place like last year, and they're expecting to find about one such asteroid a year. You really can't say "this is a once in a century event" when you weren't LOOKING for all those years.

But as I said, it's Avi Loeb, he's known for all these random speculations.

[Thumper]

Hey, we need dreamers too.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Hey, we need dreamers too.

I say he just read Rendezvous with Rama