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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists built the largest digital camera ever, weighing 3 tons with a 5-foot lens, for astronomy.</li><li>The LSST camera is designed to take thousands of 3,200-megapixel images of the entire southern sky.</li></ul><p><span>The world's largest digital camera is finally complete in a </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-particles-neutrinos-fermilab-dune-tunnels-south-dakota-2024-2"><span>laboratory</span></a><span> in Menlo Park, California.</span></p><p><span>The SUV-sized Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cameras-left-in-glacier-legendary-explorer-found-85-years-later-2022-10"><span>Camera</span></a><span> weighs about 6,200 pounds — roughly 3 metric tons — and its front lens is more than 5 feet wide</span>.</p><div type="image" title="person in white jumpsuit wearing medical gloves appears faint taking selfie in a mosaic of blue green and yellow tiles inside a reflective lens inside a circle of mechanical gear with a gold circular frame around it" height="1500" width="2000" msid="109013691" hostid="261"></div><p><span>The LSST camera has to be that big to achieve its mission of taking a 10-year digital survey of the entire southern sky, scanning the whole area every few nights, eventually creating the largest </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-black-hole-milky-way-center-2019-10"><span>astronomical movie</span></a><span> ever.</span></p><p><span>"No one has ever looked at so much of the universe so frequently," Aaron Roodman, the deputy director of Rubin Construction for SLAC and camera-program lead, told Business Insider.</span></p><p><span>LSST isn't just a fun project to break records, though. Among its breakthrough science goals, the camera can also track down large, city-killer-sized asteroids so that </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5"><span>NASA can identify any space rocks that might threaten Earth</span></a><span>.</span></p><p><span>The camera's heft will also help investigate the mysterious dark energy and </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hunt-for-dark-matter-begins-in-old-gold-mine-underground-2022-7"><span>dark matter</span></a><span> that fills our universe and puzzles scientists.</span></p><p><span>Scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory built this leviathan lens over two decades at an approximate cost of $168 million.</span></p><p><span>Finally, it's complete, ready to ship off to the Rubin Observatory in Chile, high in the </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peru-drug-laced-beers-helped-ancient-empire-prosper-wari-2022-1"><span>Andes mountains</span></a><span>. Engineers plan to mount it to the observatory later this year</span>.</p><div type="image" title="rubin observatory white boxy building with telescope dome in a driveway sitting on top of a mountain with brown mountains surrounding" height="1500" width="2061" msid="109013693" hostid="261"></div><h2>A full-sky panorama, but 10 years long</h2><p><span>Photos from the LSST camera will contain 3,200 megapixels.</span></p><p><span>One megapixel is one million pixels. An ultra-high-definition, or 4K, TV can only display about 8 megapixels. To show an image from the LSST camera in its </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/high-resolution-photo-lets-you-zoom-in-on-peoples-faces-2018-12"><span>full resolution</span></a><span>, you would need hundreds of ultra-HD TVs.</span></p><p><span>"Its images are so detailed that it could resolve a golf ball from around 15 miles away while covering a swath of the sky seven times wider than the full moon," Roodman </span><a target="_blank" href="https://phys.org/news/2024-04-slac-largest-digital-camera-built.html"><span>said</span></a><span> in a press release</span>.</p><div type="image" title="The first full moon of the year seen in Lisbon in January 2024." height="1400" width="2100" msid="109013695" hostid="261"></div><p><span>The LSST is designed to take about 1,000 images each night, stitching them together to make one </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7"><span>extremely detailed image</span></a><span> of the entire southern sky every few nights. Over 10 years, and tens of thousands of images, it should have what researchers call a 3D movie of the universe.</span></p><p><span>"This method allows us to observe changes in more than 20 billion galaxies, tracking both their movements and how they change," Travis Lange, the deputy project manager of the SLAC LSST team, said in a video on the project last month</span>.</p><div type="image" title="galaxies stars in infrared jwst" height="2856" width="2799" msid="109013698" hostid="261"></div><p><span>Because of its diligence, the LSST should be able to capture all kinds of cosmic events in real time</span>.</p><h2>Catching the universe red-handed</h2><p><span>Ultra-sensitive space observatories such as the </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/times-nasa-webb-space-telescope-spotted-something-hubble-missed"><span>James Webb Space Telescope</span></a><span> have scheduled times to point at specific objects and aren't always able to make a last-minute pivot toward emerging supernovas or interstellar visitors passing through our solar system</span>.</p><div type="image" title="image of the colorful nebula in space" height="1307" width="1500" msid="109013700" hostid="261"></div><p><span>The LSST won't have to pivot at all. If something is happening in the southern sky, this giant camera should spot it as it surveys the whole area.</span></p><p><span>That's what will allow the new camera to </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9"><span>discover asteroids in our galactic neighborhood</span></a><span> that may have so far flown undetectedr.</span></p><p><span>"We'll be able to see things smaller than other telescopes have seen," Roodman told BI. "And since we're surveying so quickly, we really do expect to see a lot of what's out there."</span></p><p><span>The LSST is also designed to alert astronomers whenever it identifies something new or changing in the sky. That gives astronomers the chance to turn their telescopes to observe new supernovae, </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-supermassive-black-holes-nearest-earth-merging-into-monster-astronomers-2021-12"><span>black-hole mergers</span></a><span>, and other astronomical phenomena in every wavelength of light, gathering the most data ever about these dynamic events.</span></p><p><span>The survey is also likely to uncover </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vanishing-radio-signals-mystery-objects-in-milky-way-galaxy-center-2022-1"><span>new types of deep-space objects and events</span></a><span>, Roodman said</span>.</p><h2>Hunting for dark clues</h2><p><span>The LSST's ability to track galaxies' changes over a decade will also give scientists fresh insight into how the universe has evolved over time. That's key to understanding dark energy and </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dark-matter-map-universe-galaxies-cosmic-voids-2021-5"><span>dark matter</span></a><span>.</span></p><p><span>"Dark energy" is the name scientists have given to the mysterious force that causes </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-expansion-crisis-cosmology-new-physics-hubble-constant-2019-10"><span>the universe to expand ever faster</span></a><span>. Dark matter is some type of matter that takes up space and has mass but doesn't seem to interact with light.</span></p><p><span>Together, dark energy and matter make up most of the universe, and nobody knows what they are. The LSST could help find clues.</span></p><p><span>"If you </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-telescope-question-mark-space-galaxies-colliding-2023-8"><span>look at one galaxy</span></a><span>, you can't tell anything. But if you look at hundreds of millions or billions — and we will look at billions of galaxies — you can see patterns across the sky," Roodman said. "You can see the imprint of how matter is distributed in the universe."</span></p>

Scientists built a 3-ton camera with a 5-foot-wide lens to discover hazardous asteroids that NASA can't see

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A new project will search for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">alien civilizations</a> and technologies using Earth-based telescopes.</li><li>Researchers plan to look for <a href="https://www.insider.com/ufo-expert-says-extremely-advanced-technology-could-explain-sightings-2021-5">unidentified aerial phenomena</a> in the atmosphere that could be <keyword id="77929" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="aliens">aliens</keyword>.</li><li>Harvard physicist Avi Loeb leads the project. He thinks the interstellar object <keyword id="10940945" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="oumuamua">'Oumuamua</keyword> was an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-not-alien-spacecraft-study-2019-7">alien ship</a>.</li></ul><p>When the first interstellar object ever observed, 'Oumuamua, careened past Earth in 2017, it seemed to be accelerating. That's not what most <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> rocks do - which is in part why Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb says 'Oumuamua was an alien spaceship.</p><p>Although <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-not-alien-spacecraft-study-2019-7">most researchers</a> agree that the object was a space rock - either a comet or piece of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/interstellar-object-oumuamua-part-of-planet-not-aliens-study-2021-3">a tiny planet</a> - Loeb thinks there are countless other objects like 'Oumuamua whizzing by our planet, some of which could come from aliens, too. So he launched a program to find them. </p><p>On Monday, Loeb announced an initiative called the Galileo Project - after the Italian astronomer - that will search for physical evidence of alien technologies and civilizations.</p><p>"It's a fishing expedition, let's just go out and catch whatever fish we find," Loeb said in a press conference. "And that includes objects close to Earth, hovering within our atmosphere, or objects that came from outside the solar system that look weird."</p><p>The $1.75 million project, backed by at least <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/advisory-board">four philanthropists</a>, aims to use a network of Earth-based telescopes to look for interstellar objects that could be extraterrestrial in nature. The group will also hunt for potential alien ships in Earth's orbit, as well as unidentified flying craft in our atmosphere.</p><h2>Finding interstellar objects before they pass Earth</h2><div type="image" title="oumuamua 1I 2017 u1 solar system trajectory illustration comet asteroid or alien spaceship nasa swri esa stsci PIA22357_fig1" height="1800" width="3200" msid="84778792" hostid="261"></div><p>By the time astronomers became aware of 'Oumuamua's existence, it was already zipping away at 196,000 mph. Several telescopes on the ground and one in space took limited observations, but astronomers had just a few weeks to study the strange, skyscraper-sized object before it got too far away.</p><p>That left many questions about what the object was and where it came from. In a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-object-close-to-earth-in-2017-says-harvard-professor-2021-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">book</a> Loeb published in January, "Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth," he describes 'Oumuamua as a defunct piece of alien technology.</p><p>"The object has anomalies that merit some attention - things that do not line up in the ways we expected," Loeb told Insider ahead of the book's publication, adding, "when something doesn't line up, you should say it."</p><p>Two years after 'Oumuamua's discovery, astronomers spotted <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-second-interstellar-object-may-be-streaking-through-our-solar-system/">a second interstellar object</a>: a comet called 2I/Borisov. With the Galileo Project, Loeb and a team of 14 other researchers hope to spot future interstellar objects early as they approach Earth. To do this, they plan to use the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii and an 8-meter-wide telescope currently under construction at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.</p><p>Early detection could enable scientists to send probes to these objects, according to Frank Laukien, a visiting scholar at Harvard and a co-founder of the Galileo Project.</p><p>"We should, next time, have much better data much earlier, and maybe land on them or get very, very close to them," Laukien said in the press conference. </p><h2>Searching for signs of extraterrestrial technology</h2><div type="image" title="vera rubin telescope" height="3010" width="4014" msid="84778793" hostid="261"></div><p>Loeb describes the new project as complementary to the SETI Institute, which searches for <keyword id="1608062" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="extraterrestrial-life">extraterrestrial life</keyword> using radio telescopes. But the Galileo Project, he said, will search for physical evidence of alien civilizations, rather than radio signals. That includes potential alien satellites that could be orbiting Earth or fragments of extraterrestrial craft. (One of Loeb's hypotheses is that 'Oumuamua is a piece of lightsail or antenna that broke off a larger ship.)</p><p>Loeb also plans to examine unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, within Earth's atmosphere.</p><p>Last month, US intelligence officials released <a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf">a report</a> describing 144 incidents since 2004 in which military personnel encountered UAPs. One of those incidents turned out to involve a deflating balloon, but the rest remain unexplained, the report concluded.</p><div type="image" title="ufo uap pentagon triangle" height="998" width="2000" msid="84778794" hostid="261"></div><p>"It's an unusual admission by the government, saying there are objects in our sky we don't fully understand," Loeb said.</p><p>According to <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo">the Galileo Project's website</a>, these UAPs could be artifacts of an extinct alien civilizations or active extraterrestrial equipment. So the group hopes to image future UAPs in higher resolution by creating a network of 1-meter telescopes around the world. </p><p>Such telescopes, which cost about $500,000 each, can spot details just 1 millimeter in size on objects the size of a person a mile away.</p><p>"That could help us distinguish a label saying 'thing made in country X,' from a label saying, 'made by exoplanet Y,'" Loeb said. </p><div type="image" title="Avi Loeb Stephen Hawking 2016.JPG" height="1539" width="2052" msid="84778795" hostid="261"></div><p>He added that the Galileo team plans to make its data public to encourage other scientists to engage in the search, too. </p><p>"Finding others on cosmic streets will help us mature - help us realize were not the sharpest cookies in the jar, and intelligent life that is way beyond us may exist out there," Loeb said. </p>

A Harvard-led team is launching a new project to search for physical evidence of aliens and their technology

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A gigantic interstellar object called <keyword id="10940945" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="oumuamua">'Oumuamua</keyword> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-object-robotic-spacecraft-launch-intercept-missions-2019-2">flew through our solar system</a> in 2017.</li><li>The object baffled scientists: Some think it's a <keyword id="158876" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="comet">comet</keyword>, others have suggested an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-not-alien-spacecraft-study-2019-7">alien spaceship</a>. </li><li>New research says <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-object-robotic-spacecraft-launch-intercept-missions-2019-2">'Oumuamua</a> is a piece of a Pluto-like planet from another solar system.</li></ul><p>The origin and identity of a massive <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> object that careened past Earth in 2017 have remained a mystery ever since.</p><p>The object, called 'Oumuamua - a Hawaiian name meaning "scout" or "messenger" - traveled on a trajectory that strongly suggested it came <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-comet-asteroid-object-origin-dwarf-stars-2018-9">from another star system</a>. That made it the first interstellar object ever detected. </p><p>But what was it? A few researchers, including Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb, posited the object was an alien spacecraft. Others suggested it was an asteroid, or perhaps an interstellar comet.</p><p>Now, a <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JE006706">pair</a> of <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JE006807">papers</a> published in an American Geophysical Union journal offers another theory: that 'Oumuamua was shrapnel from a tiny planet in a different solar system.</p><p>"We've probably resolved the mystery of what 'Oumuamua is, and we can reasonably identify it as a chunk of an 'exo-Pluto,' a Pluto-like planet in another solar system," Steven Desch, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University and a co-author of the new study, said <a href="https://news.agu.org/press-release/interstellar-object-oumuamua-is-likely-a-piece-of-a-pluto-like-planet">in a press release</a>.</p><h2>A planetary fragment made of frozen nitrogen</h2><p>Desch and his coauthors think that half a billion years ago, a space object struck 'Oumuamua's parent planet. That sent 'Oumuamua careening towards our solar system. </p><p>Once it neared the sun, their thinking goes, 'Oumuamua sped up as sunlight vaporized its icy body. Comets follow a similar movement pattern, known as the "rocket effect."</p><p>Because 'Oumuamua's makeup is unknown, the researchers calculated what kinds of ice would sublimate (change from solid to gas) at a rate that could account for 'Oumuamua's rocket effect. They concluded that the object is likely made of nitrogen ice, like the surface of <keyword id="506107" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Pluto">Pluto</keyword> and Neptune's moon Triton. </p><div type="image" title="pluto planet" height="985" width="985" msid="81541215" hostid="261"></div><p>As it got approached our solar system - and therefore the sun - 'Oumuamua started sloughing off frozen nitrogen layers. The object entered our solar system in 1995, though we didn't realize it at the time, then subsequently lost 95% of its mass and melted away to a sliver, according to the study authors.</p><h2>It's a comet. It's an asteroid. Nope, it's neither.</h2><div type="image" title="oumuamua 1I 2017 u1 solar system trajectory illustration comet asteroid or alien spaceship nasa swri esa stsci PIA22357_fig1" height="1800" width="3200" msid="81541217" hostid="261"></div><p>By the time astronomers became aware of 'Oumuamua's existence in 2017, it was already zipping away from Earth at 196,000 mph. So they had only a few weeks to study the strange, skyscraper-sized object. Several telescopes on the ground and one in space took limited observations as the object flew away, but astronomers were unable to examine it in full. 'Oumuamua is now too far away and too dim to observe further with existing technologies.</p><p>The limited nature of the information gathered left room for scientists to offer guesses about what the object might be and where it came from. 'Oumuamua was initially classified as a comet, but it didn't appear to be made of ice, and it didn't emit gases as a comet would.</p><p>'Oumuamua's spin, speed, and trajectory couldn't be explained by gravity alone, which suggested it was not an asteroid either. And the object's shape and profile - it's about one-quarter of a mile long but only 114 feet wide - doesn't match that of any comet or asteroid observed before.</p><p>According to the authors of the new study, however, 'Oumuamua's frozen-nitrogen composition could explain that shape.</p><p>"As the outer layers of nitrogen ice evaporated, the shape of the body would have become progressively more flattened, just like a bar of soap does as the outer layers get rubbed off through use," Alan Jackson, another study co-author, said in the release.</p><h2>Some astronomers still think it was an alien ship</h2><p>Unlike most space rocks, 'Oumuamua seemed to be accelerating, rather than slowing down, in telescope observations.</p><p>That is in part why Loeb thinks 'Oumuamua was an alien spacecraft. In a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-object-close-to-earth-in-2017-says-harvard-professor-2021-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">book</a> he published in January, titled "Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth," Loeb describes 'Oumuamua as a defunct piece of alien technology.</p><p>"The object has anomalies that merit some attention - things that do not line up in the ways we expected," he told Insider in December. "Other people say, 'Lets shove those anomalies under the rug of conservatism.' I have a problem with that because when something doesn't line up, you should say it."</p><div type="image" title="oumuamua interstellar comet asteroid object esa hubble nasa eso m kornmesser" height="932" width="1280" msid="81541219" hostid="261"></div><p>Still, a 2019 study from an international group of astronomers analyzed all the 'Oumuamua data available and concluded that Loeb's theory was unlikely.</p><p>"We find no compelling evidence to favor an alien explanation for 'Oumuamua," the astronomers wrote.</p><p>Matthew Knight, a University of Maryland astronomer who co-wrote the study, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/uom-in062719.php">put it this way</a>: "This thing is weird and admittedly hard to explain, but that doesn't exclude other natural phenomena that could explain it."</p>

The mysterious interstellar object 'Oumuamua was a chunk of planet from another solar system, a new study says

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimulatorCloud/simulations/1568147419153_gb00234.html">OrbitalSimulator.com</a></span></p><p class="caption">Astronomers think object C/2019 Q4 (green line) could be an interstellar object, perhaps a comet from another star system.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers think they've detected an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-civilizations-may-have-already-colonized-galaxy-study-2019-8">interstellar object</a> approaching our solar system.</li><li>Called "C/2019 Q4" (formerly "gb00234"), the object appears to be following a path originating from outside the solar system. It may pass near Mars in October.</li><li>This would be only the second interstellar object ever observed in our solar system. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-not-alien-spacecraft-study-2019-7">first such visitor</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/oumuamua">'Oumuamua</a>, took scientists by surprise in 2017. This time, they're getting ready to watch C/2019 Q4 with "everything" they can, one astronomer said.</li><li>If C/2019 Q4 is indeed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-object-robotic-spacecraft-launch-intercept-missions-2019-2">interstellar</a>, scientists should be able to study the object until it grows too dim to see in early 2021.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Astronomers may have spotted the second object ever to visit our solar system from another star system. The object may even fly near Mars later this year, though it's still far away.</p><p>The scientists' hunch is strong but not yet certain: Right now, the chances are much higher that the object, known as "C/2019 Q4" (formerly "gb00234"), is interstellar, rather than an asteroid or comet from within the solar system.</p><p>The first such interstellar object ever detected - the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-comet-asteroid-object-origin-dwarf-stars-2018-9">mysterious</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-space-rock-alien-spaceship-evidence-2019-1">controversial</a> cigar-shaped space rock '<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-object-robotic-spacecraft-launch-intercept-missions-2019-2">Oumuamua</a> - zoomed through our solar system in 2017.</p><p>Amateur Ukrainian astronomer Gennady Borisov may have been the first to spot C/2019 Q4 in the sky on August 30. It hasn't yet entered our solar system, but astronomers have been collecting data in hopes of plotting the object's path through space and figuring out where it came from.</p><p>"It's so exciting, we're basically looking away from all of our other projects right now," <a href="https://slack-redir.net/link?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eso.org%2F%7Eohainaut%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Olivier Hainaut</a>, an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory, told Business Insider on Wednesday. Hainaut was part of a global team of astronomers that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0254-4/">studied</a> 'Oumuamua as it passed through the solar system two years ago.</p><p>"The main difference from 'Oumuamua and this one is that we got it a long, long time in advance, " he added. "Now astronomers are much more prepared."</p><p>Early images suggest C/2019 Q4 is followed by a small tail or halo of dust. That's a distinct trait of comets - they hold ice that gets heated up by nearby stars, which leads them to shoot out gas and grit into space. The dust could make C/2019 Q4 simpler to track than 'Oumuamua, since dust brightly reflects sunlight.</p><p>This could also allow scientists to more easily study the object's composition, since telescope instruments can "taste" light to look for chemical signatures. </p><p>"Here we have something that was born around another star and traveling toward us. It's the next-best thing to sending a probe to a different solar system," Hainaut said.</p><h2>Astronomers are preparing to watch the object with as many telescopes as possible</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>ESO</span></p><p class="caption">The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Astronomers around the globe are grabbing every telescope available to plot C/2019 Q4's path through space. The goal: See if the object has an orbit that's elliptical (oval-shaped and around the sun) or hyperbolic (checkmark-shaped, and on an open-ended trajectory).</p><p>As of now, it seems much more likely that its path is hyperbolic, though astronomers say more observations are required to know for sure. In particular, they're trying to ascertain C/2019 Q4's eccentricity, or how extreme its orbit is.</p><p>"The error indicates it's still possible that's within the solar system," Hainaut said. "But that error is decreasing as we get more and more data, and the eccentricity is looking interstellar."</p><p>The object's seemingly high velocity and its comet-like shroud of dust also tilt the scales toward interstellar, Hainaut added.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimulatorCloud/simulations/1568147419153_gb00234.html">OrbitalSimulator.com</a></span></p><p class="caption">This rough simulation shows C/2019 Q4's possible orbital path (green) through the solar system. It may pass between the orbits of Jupiter (purple) and Mars (orange) in late October.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"It could be a few days or a few weeks before we have enough data to definitively say. But even with the very best data, we may need more," he said. "It's frustrating."</p><p>When 'Oumuamua sped past Earth at a distance of just 15 million miles in October 2017, astronomers had no idea it was coming.</p><p>"We had to scramble for telescope time," Hainaut said. "This time, we're ready."</p><p>If it's interstellar, C/2019 Q4 would reach its closest point to the sun at the end of December, and scientists should be able to observe it through about January 2021.</p><p>Hainaut and his colleagues have some smaller telescopes queued up for observations, but he said he'd like to use "everything" to observe C/2019 Q4. His team is trying to get time on the "big guys": the Very Large Telescope in Chile, the Keck Observatory, the Gemini telescope in Hawaii, and more.</p><p>He said one colleague is also "polishing a proposal" to have the Hubble Space Telescope take a look, while other teammates are seeking the use of NASA's two infrared space telescopes: Spitzer and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explore (WISE).</p><h2>Scientists remain cautious about C/2019 Q4's identity, though</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/06/Artist_impression_of_Oumuamua">ESA/Hubble; NASA; ESO; M. Kornmesser</a></span></p><p class="caption">An artist's depiction of interstellar object 'Oumuamua.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Although many astronomers are excited about C/2019 Q4, more work has to be done to confirm it as interstellar.</p><p>"This is not the first object since 2017/1I, better known as ʻOumuamua, to show a hyperbolic orbit," Michele Bannister, a planetary astronomer at Queen's University Belfast, <a href="https://twitter.com/astrokiwi/status/1171724557952200706" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> on Wednesday.</p><p>Bannister noted that, with such limited observations, an object that appears to be interstellar orbit can turn out to have an orbit within our solar system.</p><p>"Sometimes, we just have to wait for the motion of the heavens. And make more observations," she <a href="https://twitter.com/astrokiwi/status/1171727224212545541" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>.</p><p>Those observations aren't easy, Hainaut said, due to C/2019 Q4's position relative to the sun - there's a very limited window of time before dawn when astronomers can see it.</p><p>"It's hard to see, but we have the best guys doing astrometry, trying to measure its position in the sky," he said. "It could be a few days or a few weeks before we have enough data to definitively say."</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-object-robotic-spacecraft-launch-intercept-missions-2019-2">Mysterious space objects like 'Oumuamua will visit our solar system again. Scientists may intercept the next one with a robotic probe.</a></em></p><p>If C/2019 Q4 does turn out to be a second interstellar object, that would bode well for a proposed mission Hainaut is working on to send robotic probes into space to intercept future objects like this.</p><p>"One of the main issues is: How many of these are they? If we detect one every century, it's hard to plan a mission to intercept one," he said.</p><p>If these objects come every couple of years, on the other hand, astronomers might even be able to get choosy about which object to intercept.</p><p>"This suggests we can afford to wait one or two or three years to get the right one, and maybe not the first one we spot after organizing a mission," Hainaut said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-scientists-oumuamua-interstellar-object-alien-spacecraft-solar-sail-2018-11">Why Harvard scientists think this interstellar object might be an alien spacecraft</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A second mysterious object from interstellar space may be about to fly through our solar system

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/06/Artist_impression_of_Oumuamua">ESA/Hubble; NASA; ESO; M. Kornmesser</a></span></p><p class="caption">An artist's depiction of interstellar object 'Oumuamua, which astronomers believe is a comet (not an asteroid).</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Harvard scientists have raised the possibility that a mysterious cigar-shaped interstellar object, the first of its kind ever found in our solar system, could have come from an alien civilization. </strong></li><li><strong>The scientists sought to explain quirks in Oumuamua's movement by calculating whether it could be powered by the sun's radiation. </strong></li><li><strong>Nobody knows what Oumuamua is or where it came from, and it's too late to find out for sure. </strong></li></ul><p>Harvard scientists have raised the possibility that a mysterious cigar-shaped interstellar object, the first of its kind ever found in our solar system, could be a probe intentionally sent towards Earth from an alien civilization. </p><p><span>A Hawaiian telescope first spotted <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-comet-asteroid-object-origin-dwarf-stars-2018-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'Oumuamua</a> - meaning "a messenger from afar, arriving first" in Hawaiian - in October 2017. </span>The metal-rich object was found to be about 750 feet by 115 feet in size and reddish in color. It was moving inexplicably fast but not circling the sun.</p><p>Instead, it had dived between Mercury and the sun and was zooming past Earth on its way out of our solar system. This path meant that 'Oumuamua was an interstellar traveler from beyond the solar system. Scientists first called the object <span>an asteroid, then later deemed it a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-cigar-shaped-interstellar-visitor-oumuamua-classified-as-comet-2018-6">mildly active comet</a>. But 'Oumuamua didn't show the typical signs of a comet, like a tail of dust and gas.</span></p><p><span>Just in case, a</span><span>stronomers pointed powerful radio telescopes at the object to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-object-radio-telescope-listens-signals-2017-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scan for radio transmissions</a>. But they found nothing.</span></p><p><span>Since 'Oumuamua's discovery, however, scientists have continued to wonder whether it could have originated from some intelligent life-form.</span></p><p><span>A <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new paper from Harvard scientists Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb</a> suggests that quirks in Oumuamua's rotation and speed could be the result of solar-powered movement. That means the object would be made of some thin material that could absorb radiation from the sun - either a naturally created material that we've never seen before, or something made by aliens. </span></p><p><span>'Oumuamua "might be a lightsail of artificial origin," the paper states, referring to an object designed to use solar radiation for propulsion. Humans have experimented before with lightsails, but the idea remains in its infancy. </span></p><p><span>"One possibility is that 'Oumuamua is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment," the paper states.</span><span></span></p><p><span>The idea that the object could have been part of some massive alien solar-powered technology may seem far-fetched, but the authors go on to suggest an even more "exotic" explanation. </span></p><p><span>"Alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that 'Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization," the paper states.</span></p><p><span>The authors argue that if 'Oumuamua is just a random interstellar rock, we should have seen more objects like it. That fact, combined with the object's strange movements, suggest it could have its own source of power beyond gravitational pulls, the authors suggest.</span></p><p><span>'Oumuamua has already passed Earth on its way out of the solar system, so the object is too far away for scientists to continue studying it. That means</span><span> the origin, behavior, and makeup of 'Oumuamua will remain a mystery. So the Harvard authors' "exotic" guesses are just as good as anyone's at this point.</span></p><p><span>Loeb <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/scientists-say-mysterious-oumuamua-object-could-be-alien-spacecraft-ncna931381" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told NBC News</a> that his idea that 'Oumuamua could be alien-made was "purely scientific and evidence-based." </span></p><p><span>"I follow the maxim of Sherlock Holmes: When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," Loeb said. </span><span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-discover-first-interstellar-object-asteroid-oumuamua-2017-11">Astronomers have discovered a bizarre-looking object that came from outside our solar system</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Mysterious interstellar 'Oumuamua' object could be a solar-powered alien probe, Harvard scientists say

<p><em><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22357">NASA/ESA/STScI</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of the space object 'Oumuamua (formally known as 1I/2017 U1) flying through the solar system in late 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></em></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>A building-sized interstellar object called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-space-rock-alien-spaceship-evidence-2019-1">'Oumuamua</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-object-robotic-spacecraft-launch-intercept-missions-2019-2">flew through our solar system</a> in 2017.</li><li>The cigar-shaped object has baffled scientists. Many think 'Oumuamua is a comet, though a few have suggested it could be an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-scientists-oumuamua-interstellar-object-alien-spacecraft-solar-sail-2018-11">alien probe</a>.</li><li>Now, a study says <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-object-robotic-spacecraft-launch-intercept-missions-2019-2">'Oumuamua isn't an alien spacecraft</a>, and has a wholly natural origin.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>In October 2017, a massive object careened past Earth at a distance of 15 million miles.</p><p>By the time astronomers became aware of the celestial visitor, it was already careening out of the solar system at 110,000 mph. The object's trajectory strongly suggested it came <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-comet-asteroid-object-origin-dwarf-stars-2018-9">from another star system</a>, making it the first interstellar object ever detected.</p><p>Scientists gave it a Hawaiian name, 'Oumuamua, meaning "scout" or "messenger from afar, arriving first." </p><p>Unfortunately, 'Oumuamua's unexpected appearance and rapid exit from our solar system meant that scientists only had a few weeks to study the strange visitor. Several telescopes on the ground and one in space took limited observations of 'Oumuamua as it flew away, but astronomers were unable to examine it in full. The skyscraper-size object is now too far away and too dim to observe further with our current technologies.</p><p>"This one's gone forever," <a href="http://www.physics.nau.edu/~trilling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David Trilling</a>, an astronomer at Northern Arizona University, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-space-rock-alien-spaceship-evidence-2019-1">previously told Business Insider</a>. "We have all the data we're ever going to have about 'Oumuamua."</p><p>The limits of information gathered about the object left room for scientists to offer guesses about what it might be and where it came from. Those have run the gamut from comet to asteroid to a never-before-seen alien spaceship. In particular, one astronomer from Harvard University and a few of his colleagues have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/interstellar-comet-asteroid-a2017-u1-evidence-2017-10">speculated about potential extraterrestrial origins</a>. But nearly all other experts who have studied 'Oumuamua say the aliens hypothesis is extraordinarily unlikely.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-interstellar-space-rock-alien-spaceship-evidence-2019-1">A bizarre interstellar object called 'Oumuamua continues to perplex astronomers a year after it vanished. Here's why a few scientists still wonder if it was alien.</a></em></p><p>Now, a new study from the international team of astronomers has concluded that the space object has a wholly natural origin.</p><p><span>"The alien spacecraft hypothesis is a fun idea, but our analysis suggests there is a whole host of natural phenomena that could explain it," study author and astronomer Matthew Knight <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/uom-in062719.php">said in a press release</a>.</span></p><h2>It's a comet. It's an asteroid. It's ... an alien ship?</h2><p>The source of the 'Oumuamua controversy is that the object is undeniably weird.</p><p>It was initially classified as a comet, but doesn't appear to be made of ice and doesn't emit gases like a comet would. 'Oumuamua's spin, speed, and trajectory can't be explained by gravity alone, which suggested it's not an asteroid either. And 'Oumuamua's cigar-shaped profile - it's about one-quarter of a mile in length but only 114 feet wide - doesn't match any comet or asteroid observed before.</p><p><span>What's more, telescopes observed that the object was accelerating rather than slowing down, unlike most space rocks. </span></p><p>"We have never seen anything like 'Oumuamua in our solar system. It's really a mystery still," Knight said. <span>"This thing is weird and admittedly hard to explain, but that doesn't exclude other natural phenomena that could explain it."</span></p><p><span>In 2017, Knight and his colleagues <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.04723">suggested</a> that 'Oumuamua was an elongated, roughly 820-foot-long comet. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0816-x">The new study</a>, published yesterday in the journal Nature Astronomy, analyzed all the existing data available about 'Oumuamua and came to a similar conclusion about the unlikelihood of alien influence.</span></p><p><span>"We find no compelling evidence to favor an alien explanation for 'Oumuamua," the authors wrote.</span></p><p><span><em><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>ESO/M. Kornmesser</span></p><p class="caption">Artist's impression of 'Oumuamua</p></div><p></p></div></div></em></span></p><p><span>The most prominent scientist suggesting aliens could be a possible explanation has been <a href="https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Avi Loeb</a>, the chair of Harvard University's astronomy department. His idea was that 'Oumuamua <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">could potentially be some sort of alien solar sail</a> - a craft that uses <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-taking-up-first-ever-solar-sail-2019-6">sunlight to power its travels through space</a>.</span></p><p><span> In December 2017, Loeb directed a project called Breakthrough Listen (an effort to listen for alien signals that Loeb helps run) to point radio antennas <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-object-radio-telescope-listens-signals-2017-12">at 'Oumuamua</a>. No alien communications were detected.</span></p><p><span>But in </span><a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/advanced-extraterrestrials-as-an-approximation-to-god/?curator=MediaREDEF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a post published by Scientific American</a><span>, Loeb wrote that humans spotting alien technology "might resemble an imaginary encounter of ancient cave people with a modern cell phone," at first interpreting it as "shiny rock" and not a "communication device."</span></p><p>Knight and his team disagree with that hypothesis.</p><p>"Our preference is to stick with analogues we know, unless or until we find something unique," he said.<span> </span></p><p><span>Scientists may never settle on the true identity of 'Oumuamua, but</span> Knight and other authors of the new study don't think 'Oumuamua will be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Instead, it could be the first of many interstellar visitors that scientists are able to observe.</p><p><span>"We may start seeing a new object every year. That's when we'll start to know whether 'Oumuamua is weird, or common," Knight said. "If we find 10 to 20 of these things and 'Oumuamua still looks unusual, we'll have to reexamine our explanations."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-scientists-oumuamua-interstellar-object-alien-spacecraft-solar-sail-2018-11">Why Harvard scientists think this interstellar object might be an alien spacecraft</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

The bizarre interstellar object 'Oumuamua that flew through our solar system was almost definitely not aliens, a new study says

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>A building-size object called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/oumuamua" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'Oumuamua</a> flew through the inner solar system in late 2017.</li><li>Telescopes observed the mysterious interloper, but scarce data has left questions open about the object's shape, size, and composition.</li><li>A few astronomers wonder whether it could be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/aliens" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alien</a>, but 'Oumuamua is most likely a "slightly weird" asteroid, comet, or space rock.</li><li>New space missions are being dreamed up to intercept the next interstellar object that visits our solar system.</li></ul><p>In 2016, something roughly the size of a skyscraper emerged from deep space and careened toward the inner solar system.</p><p>The mysterious object flew within about 15 million miles of our planet on October 14.</p><p>But it wasn't until four days later that humanity finally spotted it in telescope data. By then, it was moving away from the sun at a speed of more than 110,000 mph. It took another week for astronomers around the globe to point every tool they could in its direction.</p><p>Astronomers initially called their unprecedented catch "1I/2017 U1," with "I" standing for interstellar - or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-comet-asteroid-object-origin-dwarf-stars-2018-9">from another star system</a>. The object was later dubbed 'Oumuamua, a Hawaiian name that's pronounced "oo moo-uh moo-uh" and means "a messenger from afar, arriving first."</p><p>'Oumuamua remains one of the most significant, confounding, and at times contentious astronomical discoveries in recent memory. Little is definitively known about its composition, weight, shape, or dimensions - it may be a <a href="https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/su201842" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3,300-foot-long</a> cigar, a city-block-size pancake, or something in-between.</p><p>"This one's gone forever. We have all the data we're ever going to have about 'Oumuamua," <a href="http://www.physics.nau.edu/~trilling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David Trilling</a>, an astronomer at Northern Arizona University who led Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the object, told Business Insider. "Now it's trying to understand if we can tell a story. Do we know what's going on?"</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-signals-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence-study-2018-10">Smart aliens might live within 33,000 light-years of Earth. A new study explains why we haven't found them yet.</a></em></p><p>Enough doubt surrounds 'Oumuamua that at least one reputable astronomer and a few of his colleagues continue to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/interstellar-comet-asteroid-a2017-u1-evidence-2017-10">speculate about potential alien origins</a>. But nearly all other experts who have studied 'Oumuamua say the aliens hypothesis is extraordinarily unlikely.</p><p>Here's what we know about 'Oumuamua, why it probably isn't alien, and how astronomers are preparing for another interstellar object to unexpectedly sail through our solar system.</p><h2>How astronomers found and measured 'Oumuamua</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Researchers in 1976 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0019-1035(76)90189-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicted</a> that other star systems were likely ejecting big asteroids and comets and flinging them toward our solar system, suggesting we could perhaps spot some in the future.</p><p>But the most recent estimate of how often such interstellar vagabonds would pay us a visit (and be detectable) was "bleak," <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aa5c8a">according to the authors of a study</a> published just months before 'Oumuamua was discovered. The odds, in fact, were low enough that practically no one was overtly looking for these space objects.</p><p>Then on October 19, 2017, Robert Weryk, a postdoctoral student at the University of Hawaii, discovered 'Oumuamua somewhat by accident.</p><p>Weryk was perusing a batch of data collected by an observatory called Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) that sits atop a mountain in Maui. The observatory scans the entire sky each night, allowing astronomers to compare fresh data to the previous evening's. Anything that's bright enough to detect and moving will thus <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1737d/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stand out</a>.</p><p>As Weryk <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/interstellar-space-rock/546371/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Atlantic</a> in November 2017, he initially thought the object was a typical asteroid. But after a glance at the previous evening's data, he realized it was unusual.</p><p>"I'd never expected to find something like this," he said.</p><p>Calculating the exact path of 'Oumuamua took about a week. The math showed it was an object from beyond - way, way beyond. Its orbit was "unbound" or loop-less, and it was making a checkmark-shaped trip through the solar system. It had entered from above the plane of the solar system, dipped close to and below the sun, and was exiting out the top.</p><p>This realization prompted Weryk, fellow astronomer Karen Meech, and others to launch a global effort to observe 'Oumuamua with as many powerful telescopes as possible before it vanished. More astronomers eventually followed suit, though with some delay.</p><p>"I was caught off-guard, and I think a lot of astronomers were, too," Trilling said. "It took a while for many of us to think, 'I should go look at it.' The delay was people thinking, 'Naw, it couldn't be from another solar system.'"</p><p>Because of this element of surprise, and the fact that <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1737/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world-class</a> <a href="https://www.gemini.edu/node/12729" target="_blank" rel="noopener">observatories</a> are scheduled months or years ahead, it took a week or more for powerful telescopes to start looking at 'Oumuamua. (Hubble didn't observe it until January 2018, just before the object vanished from sight.)</p><p>No telescope imaged it in photographic detail, though. One observatory was equipped to do so - the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico - but nature had other plans.</p><p>"Unfortunately, the Arecibo Observatory missed the opportunity to determine the actual shape of 'Oumuamua due to Hurricane Maria, really bad timing," Abel Méndez, an astrobiologist at the University of Puerto Rico, told Business Insider.</p><h2>Is it a comet, asteroid, or something else?</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The observations that were made suggest 'Oumuamua has a fairly uniform surface, is relatively dark, and has a reddish color (which is not unusual for deep-space objects).</p><p>Lacking any detailed photograph of 'Oumuamua, astronomers resorted to studying its brightness as the next-best method to deduce its shape. This is because any side of an object that faces the sun will reflect light; a longer side tends to reflect more light than a shorter side because it has a greater area. Repeating changes in brightness can also betray the rough dimensions and 3D-motion of a space object.</p><p>Early calculations suggest 'Oumuamua tumbles about once every eight hours and has a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/chasing-oumuamua" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cigar-shape</a>, with a large-to-small-dimension size ratio of roughly ten to one. That is abnormal.</p><p>"The most extreme bodies we know of in the solar system are three-to-one," Trilling said.</p><p>Another peculiarity is that on its way toward interstellar space, 'Oumuamua deviated from its predicted path by about 25,000 miles, according to observations from Hubble.</p><p>If 'Oumuamua were a typical comet, this might explain its change of direction: Comets that drift close to the sun warm up, which causes internal gases to evaporate. The shooting jets of these gases can act like small rocket engines, altering the path an object travels and the way it tumbles.</p><p>In such cases, the evaporating gases form a tail behind the rock. They can also cause big chunks of a comet to break off. But no tail or break-up of 'Oumuamua was definitively seen.</p><p>There was also another surprise from the Spitzer Space Telescope: It did not detect a heat signature. The fact that Spitzer was unable to detect that heat suggests 'Oumuamua is somewhat shinier than a normal object, since less warmth being absorbed means more sunlight is getting bounced away.</p><p>Trilling said "shiny" is relative, though -'Oumuamua could be as dark as "dirty slush" in a gutter, and that would be shinier than expected.</p><p>"We're not talking about a ball of tin foil flying through space," he said.</p><p>However, an extraordinary possibility - an unnatural object - did occur to some researchers, a few of whom chose to test the idea against the limited observations.</p><h2>Why it's probably not aliens - just a 'slightly weird' rock</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p><a href="https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Avi Loeb</a>, the chair of Harvard University's astronomy department, took <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/6-strange-facts-about-the-interstellar-visitor-oumuamua/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the peculiarities</a> of 'Oumuamua as reason to pursue the remote possibility that 'Oumuamua might be alien in origin.</p><p>In December 2017, Loeb directed Breakthrough Listen (an effort to listen for alien signals that Loeb helps run) to point radio antennas <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-object-radio-telescope-listens-signals-2017-12">toward 'Oumuamua</a>. No alien communications were detected.</p><p>In October 2018, Loeb and a colleague wondered <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aaeda8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a study</a> whether the object might have a more extreme pancake-like shape. Based on mathematical analysis, they suggested it could perhaps be as thin as a sail that could be pushed by light (also called a lightsail), which might also explain the 0.1% change in direction found by Hubble.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-starshot-laser-beam-power-2018-12">A startup is developing a 100-gigawatt laser to propel a probe to another star system. That may be powerful enough to 'ignite an entire city.'</a></em></p><p>Most recently, Loeb and an undergraduate student published a <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/aafe7c/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brief study</a> suggesting 'Oumuamua might actually have a 50-to-1 size ratio if it's cigar-shaped, or a 20-to-1 ratio if it's more of a pancake.</p><p>Loeb defends his pursuit of the idea as a valid scientific argument, given the data available. In <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/advanced-extraterrestrials-as-an-approximation-to-god/?curator=MediaREDEF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a blog post at Scientific American</a>, he wrote that humans spotting alien technology "might resemble an imaginary encounter of ancient cave people with a modern cell phone," at first interpreting it as "shiny rock" and not a "communication device."</p><p>However, <a href="https://www.eso.org/~ohainaut/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Olivier Hainaut</a>, an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory, told Business Insider that Loeb's latest paper is based on a misunderstanding of brightness data from <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aab370" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a study</a> that Hainaut co-authored. Hainaut added that Loeb's conclusions "collapse" when the uncertainty of the data is taken into account. Loeb and a co-author disputed this, claiming the uncertainty is not as great as Hainaut said.</p><p>Many researchers interviewed by Business Insider also noted that because the observations of 'Oumuamua were relatively distant, limited, and filled with gaps, there's not nearly enough data to reasonably make extraordinary claims (which, as Carl Sagan once quipped, require extraordinary evidence).</p><p>Hainaut thinks the object is most likely a "slightly weird" space rock, as does Trilling.</p><p>"All of the evidence is consistent with a rock," Trilling said. "We've never seen an alien spaceship - we have no idea what that evidence would look like. So I think it's just a rock."</p><p>Trilling said he accepts the possibility, however remote, that Loeb and his colleagues' "extreme" ideas could eventually be borne out.</p><p>"I don't have any direct evidence that says it has to be a rock and it cannot an alien spacecraft," he said. "The only way to do that is to go visit it."</p><p>But for now, Trilling explained that it's most logical to side with hundreds of years of astronomical research.</p><h2>How to catch the next 'Oumuamua</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Since 'Oumuamua, astronomers have made adjustments at major observatories to allow for more rapid-turnaround observations of the next rare interstellar object that comes to town.</p><p>"With this one, we were taken fairly by surprise," Hainaut said. "With the next one, we are ready."</p><p>The research community has also reconsidered how often things like 'Oumuamua might visit the solar system. Trilling and others published <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9989" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a study</a> suggesting that current observatories may see an interstellar interloper about once every five years. By the mid-2020s - after new telescopes come online that are designed to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neocam-mission-not-fully-funded-nasa-2017-1">look for Earth-threatening asteroids</a> - they might be spotted at a rate of once per year.</p><p>This, in turn, has led multiple groups of researchers to wonder if a small spacecraft could be readied to chase down another interstellar visitor like 'Oumuamua and study it up-close. Hainaut is part of one of the groups researching that idea.</p><p>"We had a workshop on this in October, and at the beginning of the workshop we said, 'This is impossible.' But after one week of hard work, we realized it's not impossible anymore, it's just difficult," Hainaut said. "Impossible? That's a problem. Difficult? As a first approximation, that just means expensive."</p><p>There's also a chance that, decades from now, a project called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starshot-proxima-centauri-habitable-planet-2016-8">Breakthrough Starshot</a> that Loeb is part of might resolve the question of what 'Oumuamua is and is not.</p><p>Starshot aims to propel <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-starshot-sprite-spacecraft-launch-2017-7">tiny spacecraft</a> to another star system <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-starshot-laser-beam-power-2018-12">with powerful lasers</a>, perhaps at around 20% <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-fast-speed-light-travels-earth-moon-mars-nasa-2019-1">the speed of light</a>. Such robots could also hypothetically be sent to catch up to 'Oumuamua in deep space.</p><p>"The Breakthrough Starshot is extremely interesting. The problem is that the laser technology that is required is far from being ready," Hainaut said. "I hope it will be one day."</p><div><div style="position:relative; padding-bottom:calc(56.25% + 44px)"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative; padding-bottom:calc(56.25% + 44px)"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-discover-first-interstellar-object-asteroid-oumuamua-2017-11">Astronomers have discovered a bizarre-looking object that came from outside our solar system</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A bizarre interstellar object called 'Oumuamua continues to perplex astronomers a year after it vanished. Here's why a few scientists still wonder if it was alien.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Antimatter engines could be humanity's ticket to interstellar travel. </li><li>When antimatter particles come in contact with regular matter, it produces loads of energy. </li></ul><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/business-leaders-space-travel-ethical-decisions-experts-2021-7">Interstellar travel</a> is only something humanity has achieved in science fiction — like Star Trek's USS Enterprise, which used antimatter engines to travel across star systems.</p><p>But antimatter isn't just a sci-fi trope. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cern-antimatter-factory-creates-most-explosive-material-photos-2023-4">Antimatter really exists.</a></p><p>Elon Musk has called antimatter power "<a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1706232706818769397">the ticket for interstellar journeys,</a>" and physicists like Ryan Weed are exploring how to harness it.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-valuable-substances-by-weight-2014-9">Antimatter is made</a> up of particles almost exactly like regular matter but with opposite electric charge. That means when antimatter contacts regular matter, they both annihilate and can produce enormous amounts of energy.</p><p>"Annihilation of antimatter and matter converts mass directly into energy," Weed, cofounder and CEO of Positron Dynamics, a company working to develop an antimatter propulsion system, told Business Insider.</p><p>Just <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cern-antimatter-factory-creates-most-explosive-material-photos-2023-4">one gram of antimatter</a> could generate an explosion equivalent to a nuclear bomb. It's that kind of energy, some say, that could boldly take us where no one has gone before at record speed.</p><h2><strong>Space travel at record speed</strong></h2><div type="image" title="alpha proxima centauri stars eso" height="1299" width="1280" msid="107921386" hostid="261"></div><p>The benefit of all that energy is that it can be used to either accelerate or decelerate spacecraft at break-neck speeds.</p><p>For example, let's take a trip to our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/super-earth-orbits-proxima-centauri-closest-star-to-sun-2020-1">nearest star system, Proxima</a>, about 4.2 light years away.</p><p>An antimatter engine could theoretically accelerate a spacecraft at 1g (9.8 meters per second squared) getting us to Proxima in just five years, Weed said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBebWBjpWIQ">in 2016</a>. That's 8,000 times faster than it would take Voyager 1 — one of the fastest spacecraft in history — to travel about <em>half</em> the distance, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/did-you-know/">NASA</a>.</p><p>Even within our own solar system, an antimatter-powered spacecraft could reach Pluto in 3.5 weeks compared to the 9.5 years it took <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-new-horizons-spacecraft-completes-ultima-thule-mission-2018-12">NASA's New Horizons</a> probe to arrive, Weed said.</p><h2><strong>Why we don't have antimatter engines</strong></h2><div type="image" title="Instrument used in the capture of antimatter at CERN." height="413" width="623" msid="107921390" hostid="261"></div><p>The reason we don't have antimatter engines, despite their tremendous capabilities, comes down to cost, not tech.</p><p>Gerald Jackson, an accelerator physicist who worked on antimatter projects at Fermilab, told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2016/02/24/antimatter-space-propulsion-possible-within-a-decade-say-physicists/?sh=ad089d858493">Forbes in 2016</a> that with enough funding, we could have an antimatter spacecraft prototype within a decade.</p><p>The basic technology is there. Physicists armed with the world's most <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cern-large-hadron-collider-explained-2015-6">powerful particle accelerators</a> have made antiprotons and antihydrogen atoms.</p><p>The issue is that this type of antimatter is incredibly expensive to make. It's considered the <a target="_blank" href="https://theconversation.com/space-rocks-and-asteroid-dust-are-pricey-but-these-arent-the-most-expensive-materials-used-in-science-214614">most expensive substance</a> on Earth. Jackson gave us an idea of just how much an antimatter machine would cost to build and maintain.</p><p>Jackson is the founder, president, and CEO of Hbar Technologies, which is working on a concept for an antimatter <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/first-solar-sail-spacecraft-orbiting-earth-powered-by-sunlight-2019-7">space sail</a> to decelerate spacecraft traveling 1% to 10% the speed of light — a useful design for entering into orbit around a distant star, planet, or moon that you want to study.</p><p>Jackson said he's designed an asymmetric proton collider that could produce <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576522001163?via%3Dihub">20 grams of antimatter</a> per year.</p><p>"For a 10-kilogram scientific package traveling at 2% of the speed of light, 35 grams of antimatter is needed to decelerate the spacecraft down and inject it into orbit around Proxima Centauri," Jackson told BI.</p><p>He said it would take $8 billion to build a solar power plant for the enormous energy needs of antimatter production and cost $670 million per year to operate.</p><p>The idea is just that, for now. "There is currently no <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-tech-sector-is-taking-off-thanks-to-ai-2023-12">serious funding</a> for advanced space propulsion concepts," Jackson said.</p><p>However, there are other ways to produce antimatter. That's where Weed focused his work.</p><p>Weed's concept involves positrons, the antimatter version of an electron.</p><h2>A different kind of antimatter engine</h2><div type="image" title="NASA animation shows magnets separating antimatter particles from regular matter." height="495" width="876" msid="107921392" hostid="261"></div><p>Positrons "are several thousand times lighter than antiprotons and don't pack quite as much punch when annihilating," Weed said.</p><p>The advantage, however, is that they occur naturally and don't need a giant accelerator and billions of dollars to make.</p><p>Weed's antimatter propulsion system is designed to use krypton-79 — a form of the element krypton that naturally emits <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alpha-magnetic-spectrometer-experiment-dark-matter-2013-4">positrons</a>.</p><p>The engine system would first gather high-energy <a target="_blank" href="https://nets2020.ornl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/TRACK-4-Full-submission.pdf#page=51">positrons from krypton-79</a> and then direct them toward a layer of regular matter, producing annihilation energy. That energy would then trigger a powerful fusion reaction to generate thrust for the spacecraft.</p><p>While positrons may be less expensive to obtain than more powerful forms of antimatter, they are difficult to harness because they are highly energetic and need to be slowed down, or "moderated." So building a prototype to test in space is still beyond reach, cost-wise, Weed said.</p><p>Such is the case for all antimatter <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-big-falcon-rocket-spaceship-booster-design-elon-musk-2018-9">propulsion designs</a>. Over the decades, scientists have proposed dozens of concepts, none of which have come to fruition.</p><p>For example, in 1953, Austrian physicist Eugen Sänger proposed a "photon rocket" that would run on positron annihilation energy. And since the '80s, there's been talk of thermal antimatter engines, which would use antimatter to heat liquid, gas, or plasma to provide thrust.</p><p>"It's not sci-fi, but we aren't going to see it flying until there is a significant 'mission-pull,'" Weed said about his engine concept.</p><h2>Can it work?</h2><div type="image" title="Artists impression of antimatter particles." height="660" width="1024" msid="107921397" hostid="261"></div><p>To build Weed's concept at the scale of a starship, "the devil's in the engineering details," Paul M. Sutter, an astrophysicist and host of "Ask a Spaceman" podcast, told BI.</p><p>"We're talking about a device that harnesses truly enormous amounts of energy, requiring exquisite balance and control," Sutter said.</p><p>In general, that enormous energy is another obstacle holding us back from revolutionizing space travel. Because during testing, "if something goes wrong, these are big explosions," Steve Howe, a physicist who worked on antimatter concepts with NASA in the '90s, told BI.</p><p>"So we need an ability to test high energy density systems somewhere that don't threaten the biosphere, but still allow us to develop them," said Howe, who thinks the moon would make a good testing base. "And if something goes wrong, you melted a piece of the moon," and not Earth, he added.</p><p>Antimatter tends to bring out the imagination in everyone who works on them. "But, we need crazy but plausible ideas to make it further into space, so it's worth looking into," Sutter said.</p><p>Weed echoes the sentiment, saying "until there is a compelling reason to get to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-new-horizons-spacecraft-sends-back-kuiper-belt-images-2018-2">Kuiper Belt</a>, the Solar Gravitational Lens, or Alpha Centauri really quickly — or perhaps we are trying to return large <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-startup-has-booked-its-first-test-mission-spacex-2022-6">asteroids for mining</a> — progress will continue to be slow in this area."</p>

How antimatter engines could fly humans to other stars in just a few years

A Harvard professor is risking his reputation to search for aliens. Tech tycoons are bankrolling his quest.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Extraterrestrial life could exist, but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/objects-shot-down-over-alaska-canada-ufo-interfered-f22-sensors-2023-2">mysterious objects in the sky</a> aren't evidence of aliens.</li><li>Scientists have thought they were close to discovering alien life a few times — none of it via UFOs.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">Alien theorists</a> have been going wild on the internet, but scientists aren't on board.</p><p>As the US discovered a flurry of UFOs — officially called "unidentified anomalous phenomena," or UAPs — in early February, Google searches for "extraterrestrial life" and "are aliens real" spiked. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-politics-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-china-8a04a3fc52516fefcbeae5492ffb25c4" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">The Associated Press</a> reported that online posts mentioning extraterrestrials increased by nearly 300% after the first object was identified as a balloon from China. Even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jokes-shot-down-ufo-alien-friends-of-mine-2023-2" rel="">Elon Musk weighed in</a> with an alien joke.</p><div type="image" title="The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts to the ocean after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, U.S. February 4, 2023." height="3195" width="4260" msid="98189930" hostid="261"></div><p>Most recently, a <a href="https://www.insider.com/japan-mystified-giant-metal-sphere-washed-up-beach-godzilla-dragonball-2023-2">mysterious giant metal ball</a> washed up on the shores of Japan, inspiring new online rumors.</p><p>No scientific research has suggested that any of these mystery objects belong to aliens (though <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA is working on its own framework for assessing UFO incidents</a>). No prominent scientists have come forward to cry "aliens" either.</p><p>There have been incidents in the past where some researchers thought they'd come close to discovering signs of alien life — or even extraterrestrial intelligence — but none were UFOs.</p><p>Here are the mysteries that have <em>really</em> made scientists think they found aliens.</p><h2>A radio blast from the cosmos that made alien hunters go 'Wow!'</h2><div type="image" title="radio telescope dishes pointed at the sky in an open field with snowy mountain in background" height="900" width="1440" msid="98189931" hostid="261"></div><p>One of the first deliberate searches for extraterrestrial intelligence nearly struck gold in 1977, when the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University picked up a sudden, strong signal.</p><p>It was 30 times louder than the background noise and, unlike natural radio sources like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-quasars-are-such-bright-black-holes-2014-9">quasars</a>, it only hit one frequency on the radio spectrum.</p><p>Astronomer Jerry Ehman first spotted it as he flipped through pages of data, and he made a notation beside the sudden jump in numbers: "Wow!"</p><div type="image" title="Wow! signal alien" height="369" width="653" msid="98189932" hostid="261"></div><p>Enthusiasts of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) speculated that the Wow! signal came from an alien technology. <a href="https://aas.org/posts/news/2018/08/month-astronomical-history">Ehman</a> himself remained skeptical.</p><p>Nobody ever heard the Wow! signal again, though astronomers combed the skies to pick it back up. It's still not clear what caused it.</p><h2>The first interstellar object: Shiny rock, or alien space junk?</h2><div type="image" title="Artist's impression of 'Oumuamua" height="1250" width="2000" msid="98189933" hostid="261"></div><p>In 2017, for the first time ever, astronomers confirmed that an object zipping past the sun had come from beyond our solar system.</p><p>They dubbed the first interstellar object <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/interstellar-object-oumuamua-part-of-planet-not-aliens-study-2021-3">'Oumuamua</a>, which is a Hawaiian term meaning "a messenger from afar arriving first."</p><p>The interstellar visitor was shaped like a cigar. It was about 10 times more reflective than asteroids in our solar system. Most curiously, as it zoomed away from the sun, it sped up faster than it should have based on the pure physics of its trajectory.</p><p>All this led <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-object-close-to-earth-in-2017-says-harvard-professor-2021-1">Avi Loeb</a>, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, to conclude that aliens could have manufactured the object. He published a <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aaeda8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paper</a> arguing that 'Oumuamua had an "artificial origin," and may have been an adrift, defunct spacecraft from an alien civilization, with a light sail that uses solar energy to accelerate.</p><p>Other astronomers <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?postID=63f66e7f16ce4f6d205e9ad5&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41550-019-0816-x" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">argued</a> against his theory, saying that observations of 'Oumuamua are "consistent with a purely natural origin."</p><h2>A false alarm in the clouds of Venus</h2><div type="image" title="venus venusian clouds atmosphere phosphine mariner 10 februay 1974 nasa jpl kevin m gill" height="1071" width="1428" msid="98189934" hostid="261"></div><p>The gas <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/phosphine/default.html">phosphine</a> isn't very impressive on Earth, but when scientists found traces of it in the clouds of Venus, it was a big deal.</p><p>That's because, on Earth, the garlicky, fish-smelling phosphine comes from microbes. Venus's surface is too hellish to be habitable, but its clouds could be mild enough to harbor communities of microbial life, scientists speculated after the blockbuster <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?postID=63f66e7f16ce4f6d205e9ad5&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41550-020-1174-4%3Futm_medium%3Daffiliate%26utm_source%3Dcommission_junction%26utm_campaign%3DCONR_PF018_ECOM_GL_PHSS_ALWYS_DEEPLINK%26utm_content%3Dtextlink%26utm_term%3DPID100024933%26CJEVENT%3Ddec495ffb31211ed82e3ee9d0a1cb826">study</a> published in the journal Nature Astronomy in 2020.</p><p>But that discovery has been mired in controversy after <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?postID=63f66e7f16ce4f6d205e9ad5&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41550-021-01422-z">independent reanalysis</a> found <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.09761" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issues</a> with the data. NASA tried to confirm the existence of phosphine in Venus's atmosphere, and <a href="https://newsroom.usra.edu/no-phosphine-on-venus--according-to-observations-from-sofia/#:~:text=Venus%20is%20considered%20Earth's%20twin,clouds%20made%20headlines%20in%202020.">found none</a>.</p><h2>Fast, repeating radio signals are still befuddling scientists</h2><div type="image" title="neutron star supernova" height="1836" width="2448" msid="98189936" hostid="261"></div><p>Somewhere beyond our galaxy, mysterious entities have been sending out bright bursts of radio waves. They last only a millisecond, and some of them repeat at regular intervals.</p><p>These "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/where-fast-radio-bursts-come-from-2017-1">fast radio bursts</a>," or FRBs, have perplexed scientists since 2007, when the first one was detected.</p><p>Though most astronomers who study FRBs believe they have a natural cause, Loeb was once again unafraid to say he thought it was <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/17/18183347/aliens-oumuamua-fast-radio-bursts-space">alien technology</a>.</p><p>One FRB has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mysterious-fast-radio-bursts-come-from-dead-stars-2020-11">traced back to a magnetar</a> — a dead star with an extremely powerful magnetic field, which causes explosions of energy.</p><h2>Bubbly Mars dirt hinted at live microbes</h2><div type="image" title="viking mars lander model white robotic platform with long metal arms and a radio dish" height="1548" width="1920" msid="98189937" hostid="261"></div><p>Gilbert Levin was an engineer working on a Mars life-detection experiment with NASA's Viking mission in 1976. He <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/im-convinced-we-found-evidence-of-life-on-mars-in-the-1970s/">wrote</a> in Scientific American in 2019 that he still believes his experiment discovered signs of life on the red planet.</p><p>The instrument dunked Mars dirt in a broth and waited for bubbles, which could indicate microbial respiration. It got positive results at both of its test sites near the Viking lander, but the mission failed to detect organic material to support the results.</p><p>"The collective general opinion of the large majority of the scientific community does not believe the results of the Viking experiments alone rise to the level of extraordinary evidence," Allard Beutel, a NASA spokesperson, told <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/nasa-scientist-we-found-life-on-mars-43-years-ago">The Daily Beast</a> in response to Levin's claims in 2019.</p><p>He was likely referring to Carl Sagan's famous words, which apply to any potential alien discovery: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."</p>

5 times scientists thought they may have discovered aliens

<p><a href="https://panstarrs.stsci.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Astronomers</a> recently discovered a bizarre-looking object in our solar system that's unlike anything they've ever seen before. It's so peculiar that astronomers think it's not even from our solar system. They've dubbed this mysterious interstellar asteroid "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/interstellar-object-oumuamua-sped-past-earth-2017-11">Oumuamua</a>." Following is a transcript of the video.</p><p><span data-sheets-value="{" asteroid="" is="" not="" from="" around="" here="" data-sheets-userformat="{">This asteroid is not from around here. Turns out, it came from another star system. This is the first time humanity has observed an interstellar object.</span></p><p><span data-sheets-value="{" asteroid="" is="" not="" from="" around="" here="" data-sheets-userformat="{">Astronomers discovered it on Oct. 19. At first, they thought it was a comet. But its orbit was unlike anything ever seen before, and it was traveling at unusually high speeds: 85,700 mph.</span></p><p><span data-sheets-value="{" asteroid="" is="" not="" from="" around="" here="" data-sheets-userformat="{">So, astronomers reclassified the object as an interstellar asteroid. Asteroids in our solar system are usually round and lumpy.  </span><span data-sheets-value="{" asteroid="" is="" not="" from="" around="" here="" data-sheets-userformat="{">But this object probably looks more like a giant cigar. Observations suggest it's about a quarter mile long. Right now, it's about 124 million miles from Earth.</span></p><p><span data-sheets-value="{" asteroid="" is="" not="" from="" around="" here="" data-sheets-userformat="{">Over the next 2 years, it will pass by Jupiter and Saturn's orbits. Astronomers predict it will leave our solar system in Jan. 2019. </span><span data-sheets-value="{" asteroid="" is="" not="" from="" around="" here="" data-sheets-userformat="{">Making its way into deep space toward the constellation Pegasus.</span></p><p><span>It may be the first interstellar visitor, but the bigger question is: Will it be the last?</span></p>

You Searched For "interstellar asteroids" and got 11 results

Scientists built a 3-ton camera with a 5-foot-wide lens to discover hazardous asteroids that NASA can't see

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

A Harvard-led team is launching a new project to search for physical evidence of aliens and their technology

Aylin Woodward

The mysterious interstellar object 'Oumuamua was a chunk of planet from another solar system, a new study says

Aylin Woodward

A second mysterious object from interstellar space may be about to fly through our solar system

Dave Mosher,Morgan McFall-Joh…

Mysterious interstellar 'Oumuamua' object could be a solar-powered alien probe, Harvard scientists say

Alex Lockie

The bizarre interstellar object 'Oumuamua that flew through our solar system was almost definitely not aliens, a new study says

Aylin Woodward,Dave Mosher

A bizarre interstellar object called 'Oumuamua continues to perplex astronomers a year after it vanished. Here's why a few scientists still wonder if it was alien.

Dave Mosher

How antimatter engines could fly humans to other stars in just a few years

Adam Barnes

A Harvard professor is risking his reputation to search for aliens. Tech tycoons are bankrolling his quest.

Marianne Guenot

5 times scientists thought they may have discovered aliens

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Astronomers have discovered a bizarre-looking object that came from outside our solar system

Gene Kim,Jessica Orwig

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