Alien Life: Scientists Launch Probe on Oumuamua; Is UFO from Another Galaxy?
Scientists are keeping a tight watch over an asteroid named Oumuamua since it appeared in the solar system in October. Experts are baffling at its unusual shape that some suggest the unidentified flying object (UFO) might actually be a spaceship from another galaxy. Will it prove the existence of alien life once and for all?
Most asteroids are usually spherical in shape but Oumuamua is oblong and elongated like a cigar. It also measured a hundred meters long. Scientists from the international space program Breakthrough Listen, which has Stephen Hawking as one of its members, plan on searching audio signals from the asteroid for 10 hours.
"Oumuamua's presence within our solar system affords Breakthrough Listen an opportunity to reach unprecedented sensitivities to possible artificial transmitters and demonstrate our ability to track nearby, fast-moving objects," project leader Andrew Siemion said. "Whether this object turns out to be artificial or natural, it's a great target for Listen."
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Scientists still do not know where Oumuamua came from. Imperial College of London Professor Matt Genge also said that planetary experts are "struggling" to properly explain the UFO's shape.
If Oumuamua formed naturally in the solar system, then scientists should find similarly shaped objects in space. So far, they haven't found anything like it, thus giving rise to another assumption that the UFO is not a natural formation but an artificially formed object. This means that Oumuamua could be an alien spaceship.
Canadian astronomer Robert Weryk discovered Oumuamua while looking at Pan-STARRS data at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. He initially calculated the asteroid's original position near Vega, a bright star in the Lyra constellation but he had some misgivings.
"At first it was a 'that's weird,' and then we want to double-check the data," the astronomer said. "But once we had confirming images from a colleague, we were pretty confident that this was coming from outside the solar system."
Oumuamua means the first messenger in Hawaiian. Its location is currently near Jupiter.
