NASA records first 'alien' traveller to Earth - and it looks spectacularly weird
For centuries, humankind has awaited the day it makes its first official alien contact. International space agencies and private players have devoted great time and resources to find an answer to man's existential dread in the universe. But despite these efforts, we stand no closer to making that eventual contact with a sentient alien species.
However, not being able to find an alien companion to exchange notes on the workings of the universe even as we are nearing the completion of 50 years of man's first step on the moon - July 20, 1969 - is by no means something to be disappointed about.
As per the journal Nature, astronomers at NASA recently spotted – and are still monitoring – a traveller of alien origins that is believed to be from a place far beyond our solar system. Named Oumuamua – Hawaiian term for a messenger from afar – this interplanetary traveller recently flew by Earth and is the first asteroid from outside our solar system to have been observed by man.
Scientists for long have theorised the existence of thousands of such rocks lurking undetected in our cosmic neighbourhood, but to have finally come across one has opened a window to finding answers to many long-standing questions we have.
Speaking on the matter, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said: "For decades we've theorised that such interstellar objects are out there, and now – for the first time – we have direct evidence they exist... This history-making discovery is opening a new window to study formation of solar systems beyond our own."
Why is Oumuamua special?
For starters, it doesn’t look like any asteroid that has been observed by scientists before. Shaped like a pen with a reddish hue, Oumuamua is about 400m long - perhaps 10 times as long as it is wide. This peculiar shape which is unlike the other asteroids formed in our solar system may provide an understanding of how other planets outside our home planet system were formed.
Further, as The Guardian explains, this asteroid may even serve as proof of Earth-like planets existing outside our solar system.
"Since asteroids coalesce during the process of planet formation, this object can tell us something about the formation of planets around its unknown parent star. The latest analyses with ground-based telescopes show that Oumuamua is quite similar to some comets and asteroids in our own solar system. This is important because it suggests that planetary compositions like ours could be typical across the galaxy."
Where did it come from?
The asteroid was first spotted last month by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii and is expected to stay in our solar system for a couple of few years before departing for a new course. But while it's here, Oumuamua flying through the solar system at 64,000 kph, will answer many questions about its origins, which will, in turn, serve as clues that could help us understand greater mysteries of the universe.
Though no exact information is available, the asteroid appears to have come from the direction of the constellation Lyra. More on this, however, is expected in the coming days when NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope goes on a mission to observes Oumuamua more closely.
For now, what we do know is that Oumuamua is another hint at the possibility of life thriving outside our solar system. The asteroid, with its red hue, hints at having a carbon-based molecular structure. As organic molecules are the building blocks of the biological molecules that allow life to thrive, Oumuamua could very well be another proof of sentient life existing somewhere possibly in the deep reaches of the Milky Way.