Three years on scientists confirm Oumuamua not alien spaceship, can't identify it
After investigating the nature of a mysterious and apparently cigar-shaped object called ‘Oumuamua spotted in 2017 speeding through our solar system, astronomers remain uncertain over how to classify it, but are confident it is not an alien spaceship. Its odd shape and motion had prompted some scientists to wonder whether ‘Oumuamua - the first object from another star system found passing through our solar system - was some sort of alien technology perhaps exploring the cosmos. But after poring over the data, an international team of researchers wrote that “we find no compelling evidence to favor an alien explanation.” Scientists tracked the reddish-colored ‘Oumuamua from Oct. 14, 2017, until Jan. 2, 2018, after which it became too faint to detect even using the most powerful telescopes. “Our key finding is that ‘Oumuamua’s properties are consistent with a natural origin, and an alien explanation is unwarranted,” said University of Maryland astronomer Matthew Knight, co-leader of the research published in the Nature Astronomy. The researchers wrote that a “straightforward explanation for ‘Oumuamua is that it is a planetesimal” - a planetary building block - or a fragment of one - formed in faraway star system.
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