This asteroid, or whatever it is, is certainly interesting. In general, my feelings about ET are that I'm realistically pessimistic, but cautiously optimistic about finding them someday.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Just one of the many articles up for now.

The first known interstellar asteroid may hold water from another star system in its interior, according to a study.

Discovered on 19 October, the object's speed and trajectory strongly suggested it originated beyond our Solar System.

The body showed no signs of "outgassing" as it approached the Sun, strengthening the idea that it held little if any water-ice.

But the latest findings suggest water might be trapped under a thick, carbon-rich coating on its surface.

The results come as a project to search for life in the cosmos has been using a radio telescope to check for radio signals coming from the strange, elongated object, named 'Oumuamua.

Astronomers from the Breakthrough Listen initiative have been looking across four different radio frequency bands for anything that might resemble an artificial signal resulting from alien technology.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42397398

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Breakthrough Listen has reported some 'intermittent candidates' from Oumuamua -- less than constant signals, which require further analysis. The could be Earth-based interference, of course, but this is not known to be the case.

Interestingly, the SETI Institute has also apparently encountered some intermittent signals. I watched last evening, as the Allen Telescope Array was turned away from Oumuamua, and the signal lost. When the aim at the object was restored, the signal reportedly came back. They progressed to 'off-4 status' which means that this process was repeated 4 times.

This aiming/de-aiming, on-off cycling is a prime method of determining if a candidate signal is from the object being observed, or is caused by Earth-based interference.

No matter what they may find it is way too late to do anything about it now as it speeds out of our solar system.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

This series of events tends to remind me of Arthur C. Clarkes "Rendesvoux with Rama".

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

If it is a comet, strange looking, not from this solar system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua
From Wikipedia

I wish they would show a real picture, and not an artist rendition

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If it is a comet, strange looking, not from this solar system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua
From Wikipedia

I wish they would show a real picture, and not an artist rendition

1IP/’Ououaoua, also known as 1I/2017 U1, was spotted whizzing through the solar system in images taken with the WIYN telescope. The faint streaks are background stars. In these images U1 is about 10 million times fainter than the faintest stars visible with the naked eye.

Sounds like an Alan Parsons Project song...

https://www.businessinsider.nl/oumuamua-object-radio-telescope-listens-signals-2017-12/

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Hello Michael, I asked Seth Shostak if he could corroborate your story that two independent radio observatories detected intermittent signals from Oumuamua. What is the nature of those intermittent signals?

How do you know this about this?
Do you work there?

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Intermittent candidate signals were mentioned in several journalistic accounts, quoting a remark from a spokesman for Breakthrough Listen. Please find a link to one of these articles, below:

https://gizmodo.com/preliminary-scan-suggests-this-interstellar-visitor-is-1821305279

I watched, on the setiquest.info website, as intermittent signals were received in 'real-time', at the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array, as it was monitoring Oumuamua. It was later suggested that these were probably due to terrestrial interference.

Thank you Michael,
I had gathered from your post that they had repositioned the radio telescope four times,
to exclude the possibility of terrestrial interference (to exclude false positives).

The power of the intermittent signals doesn't exceed the power of an Iphone, it says in the article
(https://gizmodo.com/preliminary-scan-suggests-this-interstellar-visitor-is-1821305279).
That indeed doesn't appear to be a strong signal.

Point One:
One could say that any signal Oumuamua is emitting doesn't appear to be directed at Earth.
We'd be receiving 'weak stray signals' if Oumuamua directed a radio beam at a different target.

This is hypothetical.

However, the weakness of the signal does not exclude the possibility of artificial extraterrestrial origin,
because of Point One.

Unless anything intelligent is deciphered from the 'weak intermittent signal' of Oumuamua, it is most likely of a natural origin.

On the other hand, if any signals from Oumuamua were artificial (low probability), then the constructors of the transmitter don't want to speak to us.

We'll need to wait for the results.

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Oumuamua came from out of the void of space, yet managed to pass much closer to Earth, than to any other sizable body in our solar system. It had to arrive at just the right time, and from the correct direction, to swing around the Sun and flash by Earth as it departed. Perhaps Oumuamua didn't send us a radio message, but it may still, in a sense, have spoken to us.

Oumuamua came from out of the void of space, yet managed to pass much closer to Earth, than to any other sizable body in our solar system. It had to arrive at just the right time, and from the correct direction, to swing around the Sun and flash by Earth as it departed. Perhaps Oumuamua didn't send us a radio message, but it may still, in a sense, have spoken to us.

We will most likely never know.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Oumuamua GBT files have been loaded for splitting.

Coming soon to a PC near you.

Cheers.

Bet there playing AC-DC

How do you identify them?
Tullio

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Given it's proximity to Earth, a weak signal most likely indicates RF from Earth simply bouncing off the object. If it were an extraterrestrial probe, the RF signal strength at this distance would be large and immediately unmistakable. It's just a rock... but an incredibly interesting one.

We should have a sample return mission on stand-by, so the next time we can get a sample. It's probably our only opportunity to get a sample from outside our solar system.

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Given it's proximity to Earth, a weak signal most likely indicates RF from Earth simply bouncing off the object. If it were an extraterrestrial probe, the RF signal strength at this distance would be large and immediately unmistakable. It's just a rock... but an incredibly interesting one.

We should have a sample return mission on stand-by, so the next time we can get a sample. It's probably our only opportunity to get a sample from outside our solar system.

It's not really clear what sort of radio frequency emissions an extraterrestrial vessel would give off. We know nothing of the technology involved, after all, nor the motives of the intelligence behind it. Even if signals directed at us are ruled out, there is still the possibility of low power radio frequency leakage. This might still be detectable by our better radio telescopes.

BBC has a program tonight

The Sky At NightT programme, The Mystery of 'Oumuamua, is broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday at 22:00 GMT, after which it will be available on the iPlayer.


The space interloper 'Oumuamua is spinning chaotically and will carry on doing so for more than a billion years.

That is the conclusion of new Belfast research that has examined in detail the light bouncing off the cigar-shaped asteroid from outside our Solar System.


'Oumuamua: 'space cigar's' tumble hints at violent past


The Sky At Night programme
Published: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-018-0398-z
Nature Astronomy.

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