‘OUMUAMUA: A Messenger From A Distant World

‘OUMUAMUA: A Messenger From A Distant World

An object was quietly hurtling through our solar system charting its way out when it was detected inadvertently by a physicist/observer Robert Weryk in the year 2017. This observer never had an idea that what he had discovered was the first interstellar object observed by mankind. The Pan-STARSS telescope at Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii was the piece of instrument that was used on the fateful day of 19 Oct 2019 when 'Oumuamua was discovered.

Since the day of its discovery, 'Oumuamua has never le down the scientists and always surprised astronomers about its true nature. Each observation deepens the mystery around the 'Oumuamua making it more and more complex. No one was ever in doubt about the interstellar origin of 'Oumuamua considering its strong hyperbolic trajectory and superfast speed of 94,800Km/S in the interstellar space relative to our sun. it absolutely was clear that it came from the direction of the star Vega in constellation Lyra.

It had already passed the orbit of the earth on 14 Oct, when it was detected.  Mars was second on 1 Nov, later passed Jupiter’s orbit in May 2018 and Saturn’s orbit by January 2019. it'll be crossing Neptune’s orbit by 2022.

A curious case of Alien’s hand at play 

There was an enormous debate around the true nature of 'Oumuamua right from the beginning. it absolutely was tossed around by the scientists from being a comet to an asteroid a couple of times once they finally ended up creating a brand new category of interstellar objects altogether. Its peculiarity grew with a growing number of observations meant to research and measure its different aspects.

Nothing can be labeled as common or easily explainable by using the set of standards for astronomical objects. Ranging from the changing velocity to the strange shape that was never seen before by scientists. It evoked the little itch of labeling every unexplainable astronomical phenomenon as doings of aliens 'Oumuamua was no exception to this theory and to very today many still believe it to be an alien spacecraft or an exploration craft.

The long list of oddities begins from its shape

It all started with the strange cigar shape of 'Oumuamua, it's a minimum of 10 times longer than it's wider. This shape was never observed before among any reasonably astronomical object. it's almost a kilometer long and 135m wide.

At first, classified as a comet (C/2017 U1) considering its hyperbolic trajectory, it soon threw a curveball at astronomers by showing no visible sign of coma (a tail made of gases expelled from the melting comet) adding to the current dilemma of the scientist was the very fact that 'Oumuamua was a minimum of 10 times shinier than the other comets ever detected. Later scientists at IAU re-designated 'Oumuamua as an asteroid. Another anomaly was its motion, 'Oumuamua is tumbling through its way out of our solar system. meaning it's not rotating around its principal axis.

Alien origin theory

Aliens being the most favored explanation for the unexplainable occurrences, 'Oumuamua offered quite enough to form alien hypothesis prevalent, it never failed to make such hypothesis more and more interesting and curious.

The strong shine of 'Oumuamua fanned the speculation of it being made of metal suggesting it to be an alien craft or a research ship finely sent to our solar system for exploration.

Another hypothesis is of it being a broken part of a spaceship with a light sail which could explain its acceleration moving away from the sun with no observable coma, it was supposed to be due to the radiation pressure of the sun.

Scientists as recent as March 2021 supported the theory of frozen nitrogen melting which might accelerate it without forming any coma. Since most comets have coma made from water ice.

SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) institute's Allen telescope array observed 'Oumuamua but couldn't even detect a half a watt signal from it, hence making the alien origin explanation less likely candidate.

Most of the alien origin comes from the very fact that an identical object of alien origin named Rama was depicted in a science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama by the author Arthur C. Clarke. Coincidentally both the objects are detected in identical conditions.

Theoretical physicist and astronomer Avi Loeb and Shmuel Bailey at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics wrote a letter on 26 October 2018 explaining the acceleration because of a solar sail. This was refuted by many of their colleagues. Soon he wrote a piece mentioning 6 very interesting and detailed points explaining the possible artificial origin.

As of now, scientists believe the alien hypothesis should be kept on the back burner for this situation. As Carl Sagan said that any extraordinary evidence can only explain an extraordinary claim.