Oumuamua: this is notable

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CoorsLight

Well-known member
I read Loeb's SA article a while back, and while it was an interesting postulate, he refused to explore alternative theories. Same thing here, in what seems like a pretty animated interview.

Loeb is a big name, so this it doesn't seem like a publicity or money grab, but it still makes me wonder about the state of this rant funding right now...

Still, it's exciting, and thanks for sharing that.
 
Bay Arean

Bay Arean

Well-known member
I was thinking that, at the same time, we have had our own probe way the hell out there. I saw that show on PBS the other night about when they finally got to photograph that big giant peanut-shaped asteroid thing beyond Pluto. They took the photo up close right around New Year's day as I recall but the probe has been travelling thru the solar system for a long while. The show was compelling because everything just happened this last fall and right up to a few weeks ago, from the perspective of viewing that object..
 
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Schnellbandit

I see 4 lights!
Sure, why not hitch a ride instead of figuring out how to propel something vast distances, it's a free ride?

Maybe someone who knows can explain how the probe would communicate back to it's place of origin? If the distance is so great as to need something like this to get there then unless they have faster than light speed communications how does it get info back? If the distance is not that great then they'd probably know enough about us from gathering communications we've been broadcasting for many decades. If they have faster than light speed communications then why would they need such a probe considering their propulsion technology might be faster than the probe's speed?

At what distance does sending information back and forth take so long as to be useless considering the technological improvements that render the initial info gathering process obsolete? I don't know, I am asking.
 
Cycle61

Cycle61

What the shit is this...
Assuming it's an alien probe, let's take a look...

According to the Wikipedia, there are 34 known exoplanets within 50 light years of us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_terrestrial_exoplanet_candidates

of those, 11 probably lie within their system's respective habitable zone, assuming their life forms are based on liquid water and carbon based chemistry

So that's 11 planets that could theoretically have sent something to arrive here within a few hundred years, assuming sub-light propulsion methods we've theorized but not necessarily developed.

So call it a ~500 year trip at 0.1c, and then another 50 years to phone home.

Yes, that's an awfully long time in our mindset, but a more mature civilization may not be in such a hurry.

It's not implausible.
 
C

CoorsLight

Well-known member
Schnellbandit said:
Sure, why not hitch a ride instead of figuring out how to propel something vast distances, it's a free ride?

Maybe someone who knows can explain how the probe would communicate back to it's place of origin? If the distance is so great as to need something like this to get there then unless they have faster than light speed communications how does it get info back? If the distance is not that great then they'd probably know enough about us from gathering communications we've been broadcasting for many decades. If they have faster than light speed communications then why would they need such a probe considering their propulsion technology might be faster than the probe's speed?

At what distance does sending information back and forth take so long as to be useless considering the technological improvements that render the initial info gathering process obsolete? I don't know, I am asking.
Click to expand...

Very good questions. To the best of our understanding of physics, faster than light communication is not possible. Assuming this hypothetical alien light sail cannot travel faster than light, then whatever information it's collected will be out of date by the time it reports back to its alien inventors.

Dr. Loeb seems to conveniently forget how big space is, and how long time is. If a civilization sent this, they are probably already extinct, and/or by the time oumuamua returns to its home, we will be extinct.

Just another reason to wonder about the status of Loeb's grant funding or the status of the Harvard Astronomy dept.
 
Entoptic

Entoptic

Red Power!
Schnellbandit said:
Sure, why not hitch a ride instead of figuring out how to propel something vast distances, it's a free ride?

Maybe someone who knows can explain how the probe would communicate back to it's place of origin? If the distance is so great as to need something like this to get there then unless they have faster than light speed communications how does it get info back? If the distance is not that great then they'd probably know enough about us from gathering communications we've been broadcasting for many decades. If they have faster than light speed communications then why would they need such a probe considering their propulsion technology might be faster than the probe's speed?

At what distance does sending information back and forth take so long as to be useless considering the technological improvements that render the initial info gathering process obsolete? I don't know, I am asking.
Click to expand...

Also how does it communicate back while spinning? I'm not certain but I thought that our satellites/space stuff has to maintain a certain angle to send and receive signals.

I find all this very interesting being a conspiracy nut and love alien stuff. Brings be back to my adventures to Area 51 when I was a teen.
 
R3DS!X

R3DS!X

Whatever that means
We might not have the same concept of time as other beings might. I don't fucking know I just drink and ride motorcycles.
 
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