An extra-solar object -- that's not actually the weird part; sure, we haven't seen any before, but their existence is to be expected and is totally reasonable. BUT...!
That shape? Asteroids don't come in that shape. They just don't. We've got literally thousands of data points which say that doesn't happen.
And the whole changing-trajectories business? Comets do that by outgassing a bunch of shit. But this has done it without outgassing anything detectable at all. That's also something for which there are thousands of data points in the "not a thing that happens" column.
> That shape? Asteroids don't come in that shape. They just don't. We've got literally thousands of data points which say that doesn't happen.
We don't actually know its shape, we just have a light curve. Depending on its axis of rotation it could be between 10:1 and a far less remarkable 5:1. As to why the first one detected has a extreme shape, that's likely to be observational bias. Our ability to detect these objects is marginal. An elongated object has a higher ratio of surface area to volume, so is brighter for a given size. If Oumuamua was more circular we might not have picked it up.
> And the whole changing-trajectories business?
The possible trajectory change is evidence of a very low level of outgassing, which can't be directly detected.
Oumuamua is an interesting object, it's great that we've finally detected an interstellar object. It's not quite what we were expecting and we're not sure if it's an asteroid or a dead comet nucleus. We were expecting volatile comets to be more common but one idea is that it lost its volatiles when its parent star became a red giant, and was ejected at that point. When the LSST goes online hopefully we'll pick up a lot more and get a better idea of what the interstellar population looks like. But frankly, it probably isn't very remarkable, its spectrum is very similar to a D-type asteroid.
It's not Rama.. the thing is thumbling chaotically. If it had been revolving around its long axis, then we should be concerned. Maybe.
In any case - the researchers concluded that there's probably a large gas giant in the solar system it came from. No planets have been observed around the four star candidates yet, but presumably nobody looked yet. So now there's an opportunity to test the hypothesis: Start looking.
Besides possible rational explanations for its behaviour: Why should we freak out? It's been on his voyage for at least tens of thousands of years. Any communication from this object will take hundreds of years, at least, to reach anyone. And then it will take again thousands of years, at least, to reach us again.
Why invest vast time and energy resources to reach us? If any data was gathered, it will suggest that we are well underway to have made this planet uninhabitable by then.
Because we've only been able to observe the universe in this way for a tiny little fraction of time on earth. So why should we think we know everything?
My theory is that it is mostly iron and it got its shape by repeated _very close_ approaches to its star which also make sense for it getting ejected as it is moving very fast during that close approach.
agreed! did someone at least try to signal it? I mean sure, it's probably an oddly shaped rock formed from some unusual event, but still, raidosignals aren't THAT expensive, are they?
An extra-solar object -- that's not actually the weird part; sure, we haven't seen any before, but their existence is to be expected and is totally reasonable. BUT...!
That shape? Asteroids don't come in that shape. They just don't. We've got literally thousands of data points which say that doesn't happen.
And the whole changing-trajectories business? Comets do that by outgassing a bunch of shit. But this has done it without outgassing anything detectable at all. That's also something for which there are thousands of data points in the "not a thing that happens" column.
Why aren't people more freaked out by this?
We don't actually know its shape, we just have a light curve. Depending on its axis of rotation it could be between 10:1 and a far less remarkable 5:1. As to why the first one detected has a extreme shape, that's likely to be observational bias. Our ability to detect these objects is marginal. An elongated object has a higher ratio of surface area to volume, so is brighter for a given size. If Oumuamua was more circular we might not have picked it up.
> And the whole changing-trajectories business?
The possible trajectory change is evidence of a very low level of outgassing, which can't be directly detected.
Oumuamua is an interesting object, it's great that we've finally detected an interstellar object. It's not quite what we were expecting and we're not sure if it's an asteroid or a dead comet nucleus. We were expecting volatile comets to be more common but one idea is that it lost its volatiles when its parent star became a red giant, and was ejected at that point. When the LSST goes online hopefully we'll pick up a lot more and get a better idea of what the interstellar population looks like. But frankly, it probably isn't very remarkable, its spectrum is very similar to a D-type asteroid.
In any case - the researchers concluded that there's probably a large gas giant in the solar system it came from. No planets have been observed around the four star candidates yet, but presumably nobody looked yet. So now there's an opportunity to test the hypothesis: Start looking.
Besides possible rational explanations for its behaviour: Why should we freak out? It's been on his voyage for at least tens of thousands of years. Any communication from this object will take hundreds of years, at least, to reach anyone. And then it will take again thousands of years, at least, to reach us again.
Why invest vast time and energy resources to reach us? If any data was gathered, it will suggest that we are well underway to have made this planet uninhabitable by then.
No news since, so either nothing was found, or the aliens have already taken over the Breakthrough Board.