Breakthrough Listen Is Eavesdropping on Strange Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua

[Judi Lynn]

By Sarah Lewin, Space.com Associate Editor | December 11, 2017 03:08pm ET

- click for image -

https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA3Mi80MTUvb3JpZ2luYWwvT3VtdWFtdWEtMDEuanBn

The $100 million Breakthrough Listen search for alien civilizations will use the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to track 'Oumuamua, the first-ever interstellar object found passing through the solar system.
Credit: M. Kornmesser/ESO


Alien-hunting scientists are lending a (telescopic) ear to 'Oumuamua, a mysterious object recently spotted speeding through the solar system.

'Oumuamua, first detected in October with the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii, is the first likely visitor from interstellar space to ever be spotted in Earth's solar system. The object reached a peak speed of 196,000 mph (87.3 km/s). During its closest approach to Earth, also in October, the reddish, potentially cigar-shaped object passed by about 85 times the distance from Earth to the moon. It's up to a quarter-mile long (400 meters).

The global SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) program Breakthrough Listen, funded by Yuri Milner, a Silicon Valley technology investor, announced today (Dec. 11) it will turn the 100-meter (330 feet) Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to listen for potential alien signals from the object. ['Oumuamua: Our 1st Interstellar Visitor Explained in Photos]

Scientists have been intrigued by the reddish, elongated object because of its long and thin shape, which is unlike the asteroids and comets researchers have seen that are native to the solar system.

More:
https://www.space.com/39046-interstellar-object-oumuamua-breakthrough-listen-project.html?utm_source=notification

[riversedge]

1. Very interesting. Thanks

[Staph]

2. Rama?

[Loki Liesmith]

4. Fits most of the parameters

Except for the tumbling

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

8. Quick! Get Elon Musk to send a crew to explore it!

Wouldn't it be wild if Rama was a message of the body's pending arrival, and not science fiction?

[OhZone]

3. O-Zone Numa Numa? nt

[left-of-center2012]

5. Cigar shape

"Researchers working on long-distance space transportation have previously suggested that a cigar or needle shape [like 'Oumuamua exhibits] is the most likely architecture for an interstellar spacecraft, since this would minimize friction and damage from interstellar gas and dust,"

[defacto7]

7. Although, wouldn't an object traveling through

interstellar space for millions of years encountering gas and dust eventually assume a shape that was less susceptible to wear, namely a cigar shape? It goes both ways and this is a more likely probability.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. most intriguing.....n/t