Is this Rama?
About a month and half ago, I wrote an article about a strange object that scientists detected as it was passing by our Earth. The object was originally called A/2017 U1 and was first discovered on October 19, 2017. It has since been renamed 'Oumuamua and last week, scientists trained the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia on the object to see if it was emanating any radio transmissions. Why would they do that? Just take a look at artist M. Kornmesser's rendition of what the object might look like:
(Image courtesy of M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory/AFP)
Does this look familiar? It should. It appears to be taken straight from Arthur C. Clarke's novel Rendezvous with Rama which was a story about an alien spacecraft that swings by our solar system. Rama was clearly artificial in origin and its only purpose was to attract technologically competent species and take them who knows where. Sort of an intergalactic Venus fly-trap or zoo keeper.
So far, the object has been silent. That doesn't mean it isn't artificial in nature but it doesn't mean it is, either.
The mission to "listen" to the object is part of the Breakthrough Listen initiative: a $100 million project, backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, to hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence. The project is also sponsored by Stephen Hawking to apply more sophisticated techniques to SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, that have been utilized previously.
Of course, had they found something, you would have heard about it by now. 'Oumuamua's unusual shape and trajectory are intriguing but certainly not out of the realm of possibility for a natural object. Most asteroids are spherical in shape so 'Oumuamua elongated appearance might just be odd or perhaps a proper interstellar spacecraft. Only time will tell but so far, not a peep. And we aren't quite up to sending an exploratory probe to an object leaving our solar system at 196,000 mph, nearly 27 miles per second.
I guess we'll have to wait for the next one. I suggest you read Rendezvous with Rama in the mean time to get ready.
(Image courtesy of M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory/AFP)
Does this look familiar? It should. It appears to be taken straight from Arthur C. Clarke's novel Rendezvous with Rama which was a story about an alien spacecraft that swings by our solar system. Rama was clearly artificial in origin and its only purpose was to attract technologically competent species and take them who knows where. Sort of an intergalactic Venus fly-trap or zoo keeper.
So far, the object has been silent. That doesn't mean it isn't artificial in nature but it doesn't mean it is, either.
The mission to "listen" to the object is part of the Breakthrough Listen initiative: a $100 million project, backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, to hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence. The project is also sponsored by Stephen Hawking to apply more sophisticated techniques to SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, that have been utilized previously.
Of course, had they found something, you would have heard about it by now. 'Oumuamua's unusual shape and trajectory are intriguing but certainly not out of the realm of possibility for a natural object. Most asteroids are spherical in shape so 'Oumuamua elongated appearance might just be odd or perhaps a proper interstellar spacecraft. Only time will tell but so far, not a peep. And we aren't quite up to sending an exploratory probe to an object leaving our solar system at 196,000 mph, nearly 27 miles per second.
I guess we'll have to wait for the next one. I suggest you read Rendezvous with Rama in the mean time to get ready.
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Tales of the Vuduri
Tidbits and insights into the 35th century world of the Vuduri.
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