- This topic has 2 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 6 years, 11 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-astronomers-capture-solar.html
October 27, 2017 in Astronomy & Space / Astronomy
A Queen’s University Belfast scientist is leading an international team in studying a new visitor to our solar system – the first known comet or asteroid to visit us from another star.
The fast-moving object, now named A/2017 U1, was initially spotted on 18 October in Hawaii by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. Professor Alan Fitzsimmons from the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen’s, together with colleagues in the UK, USA and Chile have been tracking it using powerful telescopes across the world.
Commenting on the project, Professor Fitzsimmons said: “By Wednesday this week it became almost certain this object was alien to our solar system. We immediately started studying it that night with the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, then on Thursday night with the Very Large Telescope in Chile.”
The initial data implies it is a small rocky or icy object that may have been drifting through our galaxy for millions or even billions of years, before entering our solar system by chance. The object flew into the solar system from above, was close to the Sun last month, and is now already on its way back out to the stars.
Astronomers believe it was probably thrown out of another star system during a period of planet formation. The same process is thought to have unfolded 4.5 billion years ago around our own star, when Jupiter and Saturn formed. Despite suspecting such objects existed and looking out for them over past decades, scientists have never seen such an interstellar visitor until now.
During rapid investigations, Professor Fitzsimmons’ team has now captured clear images of the unusual object, and obtained data on its possible chemical makeup.
Meabh Hyland, a PhD student from the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “It’s wonderful and exciting to see this object passing through our planetary system.”
Commenting on the incredible findings, Professor Fitzsimmons added: “It sends a shiver down the spine to look at this object and think it has come from another star.”
More information is needed to pin down the exact details of where the visitor came from and what its properties are, but luckily the object should be visible in powerful telescopes for a few more weeks, allowing scientists to continue their investigations.
The team studying the object include Professor Alan Fitzsimmons and Ms Meabh Hyland (Queen’s University Belfast), Dr Colin Snodgrass (Open University), Dr Robert Jedicke (University of Hawaii) and Dr Bin Yang (European Southern Observatory).
Provided by Queen’s University Belfast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otChQo-3j-Y
-https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/892308/Stephen-hawking-aliens-asteroid-Oumuamua-nasa-breakthrough-listen-SETI-
Asteroid investigated by Stephen Hawking is ‘ALIEN probe with broken engines’
By Sean MartinPUBLISHED: 13:47, Thu, Dec 14, 2017 | UPDATED: 14:30, Thu, Dec 14, 2017
The mysterious entity, which has been named “Oumuamua”, was at first believed to be a comet or an asteroid – the first of which to enter our solar system from interstellar space.
But on closer inspection of the ‘comet’, scientists, including a group backed by Stephen Hawking, claimed there was something odd about it and are now examining whether it is an alien space ship.
One researcher, Dr Jason Wright of Penn State University is convinced the object is an extra-terrestrial craft, and says the way the object moves suggests its engine has broke.
Oumuamua is currently tumbling through space and the quarter of a mile long object is travelling at a whopping 196,000mph.
In his blog, Dr Wright writes: “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.”
The associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics adds that the object could be a ‘Von Neumann probe’ – a hypothetical craft that visits other star systems.
He continues: “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.”
A £75million programme that searches for evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth called Breakthrough Listen, led by Stephen Hawking, is attempting to detect evidence of alien technology transmitting from the object.
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who backs Breakthrough Listen, said: “Whether it’s artificial or not, we will definitely know more about this object.”
Andrew Siemion, research centre director at the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (SETI) – which works alongside Breakthrough Listen – said it would begin a 10-hour observation tomorrow for specific signs of alien technology.
It will search on the electromagnetic spectrum using the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia.
Dr Siemion said: “It’s like a radio station you tune into with your car stereo.
“Nature doesn’t broadcast on a very specific frequency, its smears it out across colour and time.
“Technology behaves differently. It can compress electromagnetic energy and so we look for those specific signs and for repeating patterns which nature doesn’t tend to do. We look for structure.”
No sign of alien life ‘so far’ on the mystery visitor from space, but we’re still looking
https://phys.org/news/2017-12-alien-life-mystery-visitor-space.html
December 18, 2017 by Ray Norris
The mystery object discovered earlier this year travelling through our solar system is showing no signs of any alien life, despite plenty of efforts to look and listen for a signal.
Perhaps it’s ironic that the object should arrive in a year when we celebrated the 100th anniversary (on December 16) of the birth of science fiction author Arthur C Clarke.
One of his most popular novels, the award-winning Rendezvous with Rama, describes the high-speed entry of a cylindrical object into the solar system. It’s initially thought to be an asteroid but a subsequent exploration reveals it to be an alien spaceship.
Astronomers named our solar system visitor ‘Oumuamua, which is Hawaiian for “scout” or “messenger” as it was fist detected by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope.
From our distant exploration of ‘Oumuamua we know it’s a red-brown, cigar-shaped object, about 400 metres long, and is moving so fast that it must have started its journey in some distant stellar system.
But we still have no idea what it is.
We know it’s not a comet, because it has no halo, and we know it’s not a normal asteroid, because we’ve never seen one that is so elongated – about ten times longer than it is wide. And its speed (about 100,000km per hour) rules out an origin within the solar system or the Oort cloud, where comets come from.
As scientists, we have to keep an open mind. For example, could it be an alien spacecraft? This might seem the stuff of comic-book fiction. Yet we know there are other Earth-like planets out there, and some may host other civilisations. We must at least consider the possibility that it is an artificial object from one of these civilisations.
That would also be consistent with the cigar shape. We know that the best shape for a large interstellar spacecraft is not like the fictional Starship Enterprise of Star Trek fame, but more likely is elongated to minimise the damage from collisions with interstellar dust.
The only problem with this idea is that this object is not gliding smoothly through our solar system, but is tumbling head over heels, about once every eight hours. So if it is an alien spacecraft, it’s in trouble.
How can we tell what it is? The best way would be to get a good photo of it, but it is so far away that even the Hubble Space Telescope just sees a speck of reddish-brown light. And it is moving too fast to mount a space mission to get closer. Already it is starting to head out of the solar system.
If it is an alien spacecraft, perhaps we might detect some radio signals from it. And if it’s in trouble, we might expect to hear a distress signal. Over the past few weeks, radio telescopes around the world have been straining to catch some whiff of radio emission.
The telescopes are well equipped for this job, as they are already engaged in the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The first serious SETI search was made in 1960 by the radio astronomer Frank Drake, and SETI has continued on the world’s largest telescopes ever since.
The search continues methodically outwards from the Sun, with no detection so far, and yet SETI enthusiasts remain optimistic, pointing out that we have only searched a tiny fraction of the stars in our galaxy.
The first search for signals from ‘Oumuamua was by the SETI Institute, using the Allen Telescope Array. They hoped they might detect some evidence of an artificial transmission—perhaps a series of pulses, or a narrow-bandwidth signal. But nothing was found.
A much larger search was made by the Breakthrough Foundation, which uses the Australian radio telescope (“The Dish”) operated by CSIRO at Parkes, New South Wales, and the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia, in the United States.
Because ‘Oumuamua is in the Northern sky, Green Bank can see it more easily than Parkes. Green Bank is still searching for signals from ‘Oumuamua, but “so far” has drawn a blank.
All attempts so far to detect a signal have been unsuccessful. The observations are so sensitive that even a mobile phone on board ‘Oumuamua would have been easily detected.
But so far, nothing. As ‘Oumuamua heads back out into interstellar space, the attempts will wind down and the telescopes will return to their normal duties.
One thing we know is that ‘Oumuamua isn’t just a rock. It is the first interstellar object we’ve ever found in the solar system, and its elongated shape means it is totally unlike a normal asteroid.
So it probably isn’t part of the natural process of planetary formation. The most likely explanation is that it is a giant shard of rock of unknown origin – perhaps debris from an interplanetary collision.
But we cannot discount the possibility that it really is a spacecraft – perhaps one that got into trouble a long time ago and its corpse continues to tumble for eternity through the vastness of interstellar space.
Searches for signals from it will continue until it leaves us for ever, and perhaps something may still turn up. But the chances are that it will forever be a mystery.
What has changed is that we now know that such interstellar interlopers exist. One estimate is that there could be 10,000 such objects passing through the solar system at any time.
If this is correct, then the hunt is on for more interstellar objects, and it won’t be long before we find another. Then we will see a new field of study open up as astronomers seek to understand their properties and origin. Will we find debris from planetary collisions? Or will we eventually find space junk from other civilisations and begin our own Rendezvous with Rama?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.