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As of 2018, a strange space object that entered our solar system intrigues specialists, and one of the hypotheses seems simple SF: it could be an extraterrestrial probe!
The object, with a length of 400 meters, looks like a cigar: thin and long. He was baptized Oumuamua. But it is not its shape that puzzles astronomers, but its behavior.
Scientists have noticed that the object is accelerated, as if propelled, but until now no one has been able to explain why. However, most researchers believe that it is a natural phenomenon.
In June, a team of researchers suggested that the object could be a comet made of molecular hydrogen ice, and burning this matter would cause the system to speed up.
However, the hypothesis is rejected by researchers Thiem Hoang and Abraham Loeb, in a study published on August 17 in the journal American Astronomical Society.
So where do these accelerations come from? Astrophysicist Darryl Seligman, a researcher at Yale University and author of the solid hydrogen hypothesis, admits that he himself is concerned about this celestial appearance. “Oumuamua was the first object seen entering and leaving our solar system, unlike most objects in our solar system that revolve around the Sun but never leave the system,” he explained.
According to the scientist, the trajectory of Oumuamua and the fact that it is accelerating could prove the idea that the mysterious object is a comet. But it would be a comet without a tail and without gas emissions (at least, they were not detected).
Then? It’s like in X filesIs the truth beyond us? That’s what Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, seems to think. He thinks that Oumuamua may have the characteristics of an alien shuttle. A hypothesis that will feed the discussions among the scientific community in 2021, because the Israeli will publish in January a book entitled “Extraterrestrial: The first sign of intelligent life beyond Earth” (Alien: the first sign of intelligent life beyond Earth).
Editor: Luana Păvălucă
