About this episode
This episode discusses the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua and the search for potential signals indicating it could be an alien probe.
Oumuamua (“Oh-moo-ah-moo-ah”) is the asteroid that zipped by the Earth on a trajectory that started beyond our solar system in truly deep space. After rounding our Sun at 97,000 mi/hr this unusual space rock will continue onward into deep interstellar space. The fact that this reddish object's brightness changes by a factor of 10 every 7.3 hours has been interpreted as being due to an elongated rocket or cigar shape which reflects different amounts of sun light in our direction as it tumbles through space. This strange space rock appears to be about 730 feet long and about 100 feet wide. Oumuamua's interstellar path and unusual shape prompted Breakthrough Listen Scientists to use the 300 foot diameter, 8,000 ton, Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope to see if Oumuamua is emitting radio signals which could indicate that it is some type of artifact or spacecraft which passed through our solar system to check it out. Preliminary analysis of several hours of data with a cluster super computers do not reveal any signals of artificial origin even though this instrument could detect a cell phone at the space rock's distance in about a minute. Care is being taken to to reject signals…
People in this episode
Host: Albert D. Grauer
Topics covered
- asteroids
- interstellar objects
- space exploration
- radio signals
- alien life
- astronomy
Keywords
- Oumuamua
- asteroid
- interstellar
- radio signals
- alien probe
- astronomy
- space rock
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Breakthrough Listen Scientists
Books & works: Oumuamua
Places: Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, Earth, solar system, interstellar space
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