
Interstellar object may have been an alien probe, Harvard paper claims - turrini
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/06/health/oumuamua-alien-probe-harvard-intl/index.html
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yesenadam
Well, the paper[0] spends ~98% of the time not claiming that.

I think I thought those pictures of it were what it looked like! but "The
large variations on the light curves indicate that ʻOumuamua is a highly
elongated object... However, the size and shape have not been directly
observed as ʻOumuamua appears as nothing more than a point source of light
even in the most powerful telescopes. Neither the albedo or triaxial ellipsoid
shape are precisely known."[1]

[0]
[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua)

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jaclaz
>Well, the paper[0] spends ~98% of the time not claiming that.

Still it does say that, and the actual 2% remaining and actually stating the
possibilty of it being an alien ship of some kind is essentially coming from
the "set of educated and random guesses" (it is difficult to call them
anything else, though officially it is called "Observations") published on
Scientific American _blogs_ (and cited as if they were a scientific paper):

[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-to-
sea...](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-to-search-for-
dead-cosmic-civilizations/)

by Abraham Loeb (chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University)

Probably they should add a "Giorgio's Edition" to the department name ....

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JoeAltmaier
Maybe it was sent _out_ by a dinosaur civilization, and is just now returning!
How sad, that the authors disappeared epochs ago and were not here to extract
the secrets of the galaxy...

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nunobrito
Wasn't a probe. Was supposed to be the beginning scene of Starship Troppers:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEFOXlyufUE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEFOXlyufUE)

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methodover
Crazy idea—

A new NASA program designed to intercept “interesting” asteroids like this
one.

The next time one shows up we could actually check it out.

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mud_dauber
I was _really_ hoping this object would have been named Rama. Arthur C. Clarke
would have approved.

