Aussie astronomer busts alien controversial alien theory

Australia’s star astronomer has debunked a Harvard professor’s theory that we’re not alone.

Harvard University astronomy department chair Avi Loeb believes there could be so many civilisations out there that “as soon as we leave the solar system, we will see a great deal of traffic out there”.

But Associate Professor Alan Duffy is among critics who has shot down Professor Loeb’s out-there claims.



believes an interstellar object that passed through our solar system in late October 2017 could have been an alien probe.

He’s talking about “Oumuamua”, which translated from Hawaiian means “messenger sent from the distant past”.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/aussie-astronomer-busts-alien-controversial-alien-theory/news-story/c73a040e0660a702b5f7a8eaec3e02d3

Prof Loeb vs. Professor Alan Duffy??

---

Alan Duffy provides no real arguments against the possibility that Oumuamua is a ET space vessel, or that Fast Radio Bursts just might be the result of extraterrestrial technological activity. He merely contends that these thing are not and can not be true. It's called investigation by proclamation...

Dr. Loeb published this new paper.
"‘Oumuamua’s Geometry Could be More Extreme than Previously Inferred"
Not clickable? https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/SL.pdf
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/SL.pdf
And this interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDZyI83Bj2w

I'm basically in camp #2.

---

The mind is a weird and mysterious place

right-on.

I would like to see a likely explanation of the 5 repeated fast radio bursts. If this actually happened it would Intriguing to figure out.

I would also have liked to have read that they were recorded and are being examined for content. This is what we are doing here in SETI are we not ??

Dr Loeb is still pushing his lightsail agenda, and why not. When looked at in a particular way the data suggests the object was either really elongated (up to 50:1 ratio) or a thin pancake (exactly what he imagines a lightsail would look like).
Trouble is, lots of data are open to multiple interpretations and nobody can get any further measurements to prove/disprove what's being said. For Dr Loeb this is great. He just has to nudge the idea of a lightsail from time to time and the topic then goes viral on social media. This makes it easier for him to apply for follow-up funding. For him, any publicity is good publicity - it's a win-win situation. Who knows, he may be right.
However, I come back to my earlier post that if this was a manufactured object, why did it come through the solar system and not stop off for detailed observations? Perhaps it's no longer functioning? Perhaps it is functioning and dropped of a probe? Perhaps the few short months it was in-system was all that it needed to acquire information? Alternatively, it was just a rock and there was something about it, or the measurements done on it, that made it appear to be elongated or flat. I guess we'll never know; unless there is a probe or a whole load more objects are due to come by sometime soon and set up home here.

---

Such nonsense. What would the dimensions of a light or solar sail be. What were the dimensions of this asteroid?

Any acceleration was due to the closer encounter with our sun and the subsequent boost in gravitational force. An easy calculation should prove this as well in the sense of Newtonian mechanics.

It's already been scientifically established that Oumumamua picked up more speed for its departure from the inner solar system, than could have been provided by its interactions with the Sun, or any other body.

It's also been realized that outgassing, like that from a comet, could not be the explanation, either. That sort of scenario would have seen the rotation of the object affected, and it wasn't. That, and a number of other oddities about this object are the basis of the extraordinary level of interest in Oumuamua.

Dr. Loeb is enthusiastic about the idea of a solar sail, having sought to develop one, here on Earth, but even he has admitted, in print, that Oumuamua could be a space vessel with an entirely different source of thrust.

Oumumamua is clearly powered by unobtainium.

---

A simple calculation could most likely show that gravity( possibly just from our Sun) accounted for any acceleration. We need:

Mass of The sun
Mass of obu-----
Initial velocity
Final velocity
Gravitational constant
Distances from the sun at various points.

Have at it lads; you could either integrate the velocity vector or calculate a few force quantities at, say, a half dozen points, and then do a Riemann stack to estimate the average force applied
to accelerate our Visitor.

I am sure that many people working at NASA could do this very easily. Perhaps while they are laid off and not working during our "shutdown".

I'm quite sure many other space agencies than NASA can do the calculation as well:)
They do calculation of trajectories all the time.
But I think the mass of Oumuamua is unknown.
I it was a sail equipped with some instruments it could perhaps be only 1 kg.
And if it was an asteriod many tons.

I don't think these articles have been posted here (sorry if they have) :

" One of the more important things about the interstellar object called ‘Oumuamua is the nature of the debate it has engendered."

‘Oumuamua, SETI and the Media January 21, 2019 https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2019/01/21/oumuamua-seti-and-the-media/

The 'Oumuamua Legacy: Whatever it was, an interstellar object may have done some good Jan. 25, 2019 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/life-unbounded/the-oumuamua-legacy/?amp

---

Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

If this was a lightsail, perhaps it's purpose was to perform a braking manoeuvre in order to drop off one or more probes/packages. This would lead to a loss of mass from the lightsail component. Has anyone calculated what the subsequent gain in acceleration of the lightsail might be for various probe/package masses? At the moment all the modelling has been done based on assuming a constant mass (except for the rejected possibility of an outgassing comet; but the mass loss in that case was assumed to be due to jets of gas/dust that were not seen, rather than dropping off a package).
Just proposing some fun calculations for anyone who has access to these data and is shut in over a wet weekend!

---

Nuff said for my money about Obamarama. It was most likely a rocky sliver that apparently came from outside our Solar system.
No radio waves, no light sail, no propulsion system and no aliens.

It's putative acceleration was due to the gravitational slingshot effect from passing somewhat close to our Sun.

Maybe Dr. Loeb is one of those scientists simplify things to make science tractable.
https://twitter.com/ktfreese
I guess not but his statements has surely attracted the social media.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/life-unbounded/the-oumuamua-legacy/

The 'Oumuamua Legacy
Whatever it was, an interstellar object may have done some good

Nice footage.
But strangely enough some scientists believe that Oumuamua is either cigar-shaped or pancace-shaped...
Aha. Now I get it. The light-sail is very very thin. Actually invisible.

Dr. Caleb A. Scharf , who is the author of the quoted passage, is the director of Astrobiology at Columbia University. He has an international reputation as a research astrophysicist. He appears to be quite qualified to make credible statements about scientific work involving an interstellar object, and how that matter is communicated to the public.

Dr. Caleb A. Scharf , who is the author of the quoted passage, is the director of Astrobiology at Columbia University. He has an international reputation as a research astrophysicist. He appears to be quite qualified to make credible statements about scientific work involving an interstellar object, and how that matter is communicated to the public.

More so than Chris?

---

Definitely more so!

I just find it odd that so many of these top scientists are so keen to promote the idea that oumuamua was or could likely have been an alien probe. It's almost like there is an international conspiracy of some sort going on. Do they know things that we don't? Are they trying to prepare the general public for some great announcement? Or as I think, are they clutching at straws in the wind because they've been banging on about all this ET business for so long without anything of substance to report.

Aren't you one of those who have been "banging on" about E.T visiting us in the past? As for an eminent researcher writing a blog, why not? You have been writing yours on here for some time. Shame we don't get paid by the word, you'd made a fortune. :-)