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#omusmua Today I get to talk about a subject near and dear to my heart-Are we alone in the universe? I am on the record as saying we are not alone. Life exists throughout the universe.
Let us imagine for a moment an advanced alien society with a James Webb Space Telescope with 1,000 times the power and capabilities of our James Webb Space Telescope. They detect life here on earth. They get so intrigued that they decide to send a problem to earth to have a closer look.
All of us have watched high-budget movies and television programs about such an event. An elaborate and easily detectable mother ship is dispatched to earth. Such a ship arrives near earth and goes into orbit. There is shock and pandemonium here on our planet. Flying saucers or other craft capable of flying in our atmosphere are dispatched and fly down to the surface of the earth.
If a society was advanced enough to detect our life and send a spacecraft to observe us, I suspect that they would be much more discrete. A small and very capable unmanned craft would be dispatched to the earth. It would have the appearance of a celestial body. It would attract no undue attention, or so the aliens would hope.
Our solar system has recently been visited by a celestial body from outside the solar system. It does not act like a comet, asteroid, or meteor. It has been named Omuamua:
ʻOumuamua
Description
ʻOumuamua is the first interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, ʻOumuamua was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā ... Wikipedia
Radius: 656.17′
Discovered: October 19, 2017
Pronunciation: /oʊˌmuːəˈmuːə/, Hawaiian(listen)
Discovered by: Robert Weryk using Pan-STARRS 1
Apparent magnitude: 19.7 to >27.5
Synodic rotation period: Tumbling (non-principal axis rotation); Reported values include:: 8.10±0.02 h; 8.10±0.42 h; 6.96+1.45; −0.39 h;
Named after: Hawaiian term for scout
Here is a fascinating podcast on this mysterious object:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GfVUp0kZN0
The Harvard University Astronomy Department is fervently in opposition to any idea that this object is a spacecraft sent from an advanced alien civilization. I do not agree with them.