Scientists are still puzzling over last year’s interstellar visitor, ‘Oumuamua, and the latest theory is sure to excite UFO believers. According to a new paper published by astronomers from Harvard University, the mammoth, cigar-shaped rock that swung in and out of our solar system in October 2017 had some strange properties that suggest it was an alien spacecraft. And while 'Oumuamua's unique physical properties have prompted some scientists to speculate about aliens, other scientists are unconvinced and even concerned about the effect of such conjecture. 'Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization," wrote authors Abraham Loeb, professor and chair of astronomy, and Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral scholar, both at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. ‘Oumuamua, which is Hawaiian for "an object from afar," was first observed by a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii who was sifting through the data stream from the Pan-STARRS astronomical survey of the sky. The researcher noticed the object was highly elongated, like a stick, with a long axis 10 times longer than its short axis. Researchers suggested its shape would minimize abrasions from interstellar gas and dust, thus being an ideal shape for an interstellar spacecraft. Then in May, a paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggested ‘Oumuamua swung towards our solar system as a result of a gravitational slingshot of a binary star system. Read more https://www.alternet.org/why-scientists-were-freaking-out-about-object-afar-visited-our-solar-system
