
Breakthrough Listen Project to Observe Interstellar Object ‘Oumuamua - andyjohnson0
https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/news/14
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netinstructions
Some more details (besides the announcment) here for the curious
[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/yuri-
mil...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/yuri-milner-
oumuamua-interstellar-asteroid/547985/)

It'd be crazy if we detected radio signals, in part because we don't really
have a good way to send any probes fast enough to visit it closer as it speeds
away from us, at least with current technologies. There's more on that here:
[https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/so-you-want-to-
send-...](https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/so-you-want-to-send-a-probe-
to-catch-up-to-oumuamua/)

~~~
avenoir
> “The more I study this object, the more unusual it appears, making me wonder
> whether it might be an artificially made probe which was sent by an alien
> civilization,” Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department and one
> of Milner’s advisers on Breakthrough Listen, wrote in the email to Milner.

It may sound silly, but I find it fascinating that we're finally in a time
when someone in such high position in science can say such a thing without
fearing ridicule. I'm also grateful that there are people wealthy enough to
sponsor these scientific efforts. What an amazing time!

~~~
dekhn
I think he's bat-shit insane to make a mildly qualified statement like that.

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sp332
The only reason we suspect that it is cigar-shaped is because its brightness
changes (by a factor of about 10) with a somewhat regular frequency. But this
indicates that it is tumbling, which would probably not be great for a ship
designed with a long shape to reduce interstellar friction. Another potential
(but less plausible) explanation is that it is not elongated and tumbling, but
just blinking at us somehow.

~~~
eps
What if it's a _wreck_ though? :)

~~~
sp332
Yeah - what if it has a distress beacon? Then we'd have to go!

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jdnier
"Oumuamua is now about 2 astronomical units (AU) away... At this distance, it
would take under a minute for the Green Bank instrument to detect an
omnidirectional transmitter with the power of a cellphone."

That's pretty impressive.

~~~
flukus
Shouldn't we have some much better pictures and a better idea of it's shape at
that distance?

~~~
garmaine
The thing is tiny, and that is very far.

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ianai
This would be a possibly good way to learn we’re not alone in the universe.
It’s clearly not staying around and thus not a threat. Just a simple “proof of
existence”.

Edit-yes I’m aware the odds are surely small that it’s something like that.
But just the same it wouldn’t be a bad way to learn of “others”.

~~~
putinontheritz
Unless it released billions of MEMS which have started appropriating
resources.

Small odds though :)

~~~
SubiculumCode
What an interesting idea.

~~~
colordrops
Basis of The Expanse series.

~~~
SubiculumCode
oops. I think you just gave me a spoiler.

~~~
colordrops
Not really, it's revealed pretty early.

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ceautery
I propose we call the object "Rama".

~~~
peckrob
For those who don't know, this is basically the plot of a classic science
fiction novel, _Rendezvous with Rama_.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama))

~~~
lsh
better than 2001.

I thought the commie Russians dated the novel when I read it in the 90s, but
here we are, 2017, and everyone is worried about the Ruskies again. Funny ol
world.

~~~
astrange
The sequels are pretty bad, by the way - Clarke eventually just started "co-
writing" books where the other less-good writer did all the work. One of them
has a foreword just so Gentry Lee can apologize he wrote a chapter about his
historical hologram waifu.

~~~
louky
I only made it a few chapters into the sequel, the writing is completely
different and completely uninspiring.

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nwah1
I was informed that its shape and rotation make it very unusual, in addition
to being the first known interstellar object.

~~~
andygates
In our solar system, most small stuff has been rounded by billions of years of
collisions. This may be a primeval shard from a high-energy collision in
another solar system - unaffected because it was flung out of that system at
high speed. Cosmic pointy shrapnel. :)

(Big stuff self-rounds per gravity, of course, but this ain't that big)

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YaxelPerez
Relevant xkcd: [https://xkcd.com/1919/](https://xkcd.com/1919/)

I read somewhere that this might be a spent first stage, and the real
spacecraft is currently decelerating as it approaches our solar system. That
would explain the shape, tumbling, and trajectory, but then again "weird space
rock" explains those things more plausibly.

~~~
JackFr
> this might be a spent first stage, and the real spacecraft is currently
> decelerating as it approaches our solar system. That would explain the
> shape, tumbling, and trajectory

I'm believing this until proved otherwise. I figure that would probably have
the real ship arriving probably sometime in my old age, which would be
perfect. Live to see the aliens, but close enough to death anyway in case
things get ugly.

~~~
garmaine
Far longer than old age, unless you plan on living a very long time. The thing
was only moving a few 10’s of kilometers per second.

~~~
YaxelPerez
It's possible that the first stage was also used to decelerate a bit before
being jettisoned, explaining the relatively low speed

~~~
garmaine
Not that low a speed. Let’s say the generational ship was moving 0.01c, at the
low end of what’s believable (500-1000 years to a nearby star). That means the
ship was decelerated 99.999% of the way from cruise speed before jettisoned.
In terms of energy, that’s 99.99999999% of the stopping thrust already
expended. That’s without even getting into the rocket equation which makes it
even worse.

At that point why not carry it into the system with you? The mass would be
negligible given the energy budget. Ejecting it seems to serve no purpose but
wasting several cubic kilometers of presumably processed material. Why do
that?

Now maybe it was a probe ejected from a ship at distance, but then why is it
tumbling end over end?

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andrewflnr
I remember from reading about O'Neill cylinders that an object spinning on
it's long axis will, under the influence of random perturbation, eventually
start tumbling. So I'm wondering, if we take Oumuamua's angular momentum and
figure out the rate of axial spin required to get the same angular momentum,
do you get anything like earth-gravity equivalent centrifugal force near the
surface of the object?

~~~
vinc
If it's 400 meters long and do one rotation in 7 hours the gravity is
essentially zero. It'd have to rotate twice per minute to produce 1g.

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yoodenvranx
A question to the experts: Is it possible with current technology to send a
probe after it? Let's say we decide today to do it and then spend the next 1-2
years to build a probe: would we still be able to catch up to it?

~~~
zaarn
Several designs for propulsion systems capable of these accelerations with
sufficient efficiency exist. These fall mostly into the region of nuclear
drives such as NERVA or Project Orion/Medusa.

