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Harvard paper suggests 'Oumuamua could be an artificial light sail

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Telescope image of the interstellar object 'Oumuamua as a faint point
'Oumuamua imaged with the William Herschel Telescope in 2017 Alan Fitzsimmons (Queen's University Belfast), Isaac Newton Group, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harvard astronomers Shmuel Bialy and Avi Loeb argued in a peer-reviewed letter that sunlight pressure could explain the first known interstellar object's odd acceleration if it were a very thin sheet, raising the possibility of an artificial light sail. Most astronomers favored natural explanations.

Sources

  1. OtherCould Solar Radiation Pressure Explain 'Oumuamua's Peculiar Acceleration? (ApJL 868, L1)The Astrophysical Journal Letters (IOP Publishing / AAS) / 2018-11-12
  2. OtherCould Solar Radiation Pressure Explain 'Oumuamua's Peculiar Acceleration? (preprint)arXiv / 2018-10-26

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