There's a large ring of dust around the star Vega that was formed fairly "recently", probably by collisions of a large comet or asteroid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega
So, perhaps it came from this nearby star (~25 Lyr away)

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Of all the stars it could have come from the direction of why did it have to be Vega?

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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.

I doubt anyone can answer that for you Bob!

You do know that was the star that Carl Sagan selected in his book "Contact"

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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.

You do know that was the star that Carl Sagan selected in his book "Contact"

Yes I was aware of that, but I doubt that was the reason why NASA calculated that Oumuamua originated from the area of Vega.

Contact is a 1985 science fiction novel by American scientist Carl Sagan. It deals with the theme of contact between humanity and a more technologically advanced, extraterrestrial life form. It ranked No. 7 on the 1985 U.S. bestseller list. The novel originated as a screenplay by Sagan and Ann Druyan (whom he later married) in 1979; when development of the film stalled, Sagan decided to convert the stalled film into a novel. The film concept was subsequently revived and eventually released in 1997 as the film Contact starring Jodie Foster.

That wasn't my point. The fact though purely coincidental throws more fuel on the fire that Oumuamua was sent here according to conspiracy theorists.

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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.

A most interesting Ask Me Anything session, wether you approve of Dr Loeb's position or not.

I am Avi Loeb and I am here to discuss how the discovery of alien life in space will transform our life, AMA.
https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/am29pv/i_am_avi_loeb_and_i_am_here_to_discuss_how_the/

Excerpt:

Avi_Loeb[S] 26 points 2 days ago* - I did my best to use the media attention as a platform for advocating my guiding principles for innovation in science, namely taking risks and tolerating mistakes and avoiding prejudice. These are all required to make discoveries. If we always assume that the future will be the same as the past, it will be. A self-fulfilling prophecy. The main purpose of tenure is to remove any concerns about job security from the scientific discourse. As became apparent from the reaction of some scientists to my publications on the subject, many f them assign a prior probability of zero to the possibility that we will find evidence for alien civilizations. This resembles an ostrich placing its head in the sand. The history of astronomy teaches us not to put blinders on our telescopes. Galileo suggested that to the church. The most common phase of scientific research is enshrouded in uncertainty due to lack of sufficient evidence. For example, we do not yet know the nature of the main constituents of the present-day universe, namely the dark matter and dark energy. We need more data. All of my publications on Oumuamua are listed in: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/Oumuamua.html

One of the participants' comment: Astronomer here! I very much disagree with Loeb's assessment of the scientific community's criticisms of his views. https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/am29pv/i_am_avi_loeb_and_i_am_here_to_discuss_how_the/efj0xxa/

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

What self-aggrandizing drivel.

Objects in our space will always peek our curiosity.

Mostly they are just mundane though.

Harvard’s top astronomer says an alien ship may be among us — and he doesn’t care what his colleagues think (Washington Post, yesterday)



Oumuamua may have been just a cloud of comet junk

A respected Harvard scientist still says aliens might be responsible for the mysterious object that has stirred up so much drama since visiting from another stellar mama in 2017. Now, a longtime NASA scientist says you can save that idea for Futurama. His new research suggests it might have broken apart before it even arrived.

The jury is still out!

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Comets are dirty snow balls and Oumuamua did not look like a comet. It might have been an object from the Kuiper belt, like the one visited by New Horizons, Ultima Thule.
Tullio

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Have astronomers ever documented an object 10:1:1 ? That is the one detail that baffles me.

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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 the damn thing was an ET probe or spaceship would it be tumbling?

Just to provide artificial gravity within?

We wouldn't have got anywhere where we are now if some of us didn't think outside of the box. ;-)

Ahoy sailing lovers.
I don't think anyone really knows if it was spinning or tumbling.
But let's say they do and you know that both behaviours create artificial gravity.
Now if it was spinning you would get constant gravity in one direction over time.
However if it was tumbling you would get gravity in all kind of different directions over time.
Hmm. Hope ET doesn't get sea sick:)
Then trying to hoist a sail to utilize the pressure from some Suns and a laser beam from the beginning...
If spinning it seems doable and still get a constant push from one direction.
But if it's tumbling? No constant push from one direction and will make it impossible to follow a straight direction.

But I think Dr. Loeb has already an answer to that.
"It could be an artificial object that somewhat failed during it's mission".

https://www.space.com/spaces-deepest-secrets-oumuamua-video.html
'Space's Deepest Secrets' Probes Mystery of 'Oumuamua Tonight (Video)


The Science Channel series "Space's Deepest Secrets" returns tonight (March 19) at 10 p.m. EDT with a look at a mysterious interstellar visitor.

In 2017, scientists spotted a gigantic rocky object, about the size and shape of a skyscraper, hurtling through our solar system. And they soon discovered that this terrific space rock didn't originate within the eight-planet system we call home. Instead, it comes from another solar system. The scientists, who saw the rock through the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS1 telescope, called it 'Oumuamua, which means "a messenger from afar arriving first."

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Why did't we get a close-up picture of this space rock. Now we have to endure a lot of silly theories. Acceleration if it occurred was due to the gravity of our Sun.
Obama is gone; this thing and it's comments should be as well.

"It could be an artificial object that somewhat failed during it's mission".

it could be a giant turd from a space elephant living on one of the moons of Proxima Centauri--almost as likely.

Now pay me the salary of the other idiot.

I watched the science channel's presentation and to be fair they mentioned just about every theory that has been proposed but concentrated on whether it is an asteroid or a comet. It was concluded that it is most likely a comet that over the millions of years it has been in deep space a coating of a reddish material that formed from cosmic rays bombarding it constantly prevented the normal cometary outgassing that would be expected from a comet passing close to the sun. It was also mentioned that due to the fact that it wasn't spotted until it was already leaving the solar system not enough telescope time was available to make a complete analysis of it's properties. They also mentioned that it will be unlikely to have a vehicle ready on short notice should another interstellar object zoom through the solar system. The odds of such an occurrence are very long. So basically, we blew our only chance to get more information about objects from beyond our neighborhood.

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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.

I watched also, +1 Bob. :)

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What was it?




Was ‘Oumuamua a Fragment from a Disintegrated Comet?

'1/'Oumuamua, the interstellar mystery object that briefly visited the inner solar system in 2018, has proven a difficult nut to crack. Astronomers are still arguing about what it even is — asteroid, comet, or something else altogether? Now, in a pair of studies posted recently on the arXiv (paper 1https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.08704, paper 2https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.00935), Zdenek Sekanina (JPL-Caltech) suggests the object might be an ultra-low density fragment from a comet that disintegrated while passing near the Sun.

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The problems with this 'ultra-low-density' comet hypothesis:

We've never seen a comet from within our own solar system that's built along such flimsy lines; nothing even comes close.

How did such a lightly constructed object hold together in its fragile, elongated shape, when it was wrenched out of its own solar system, and sent flying toward ours?

How did this icy filigree of an an object not wholly melt away when it passed near our sun, before it could head back out toward interstellar space?

The only advantage to this hypothesis: the feeble thrust that solar wind could provide might speed up such a very light object to the degree reported. This is as much as admitting that a normal comet, one of greater density and mass, could not have had its speed increased by the solar wind, in the manner observed.

So, we're not sure yet - thus, cometary fragment or alien probe, in the absence of evidence, remain premature conclusions.

I suggest we temporarily settle for the "dead aliens" hypothesis, which has its uses.

How Dead Aliens Could Help Save Humanity | Space 
https://www.space.com/dead-intelligent-aliens-save-humanity.html

The problems with this 'ultra-low-density' comet hypothesis:

We've never seen a comet from within our own solar system that's built along such flimsy lines; nothing even comes close.

How did such a lightly constructed object hold together in its fragile, elongated shape, when it was wrenched out of its own solar system, and sent flying toward ours?

How did this icy filigree of an an object not wholly melt away when it passed near our sun, before it could head back out toward interstellar space?

The only advantage to this hypothesis: the feeble thrust that solar wind could provide might speed up such a very light object to the degree reported. This is as much as admitting that a normal comet, one of greater density and mass, could not have had its speed increased by the solar wind, in the manner observed.

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020