B Could Solar Radiation Explain 'Oumuamua's Strange Trajectory?

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Research indicates that 'Oumuamua, the interstellar asteroid, deviated from a purely gravitational trajectory, likely being pushed away from the sun with a high degree of certainty. While comet out-gassing typically explains such behavior, no evidence of out-gassing was observed in 'Oumuamua. A new study suggests that if 'Oumuamua is extremely thin, solar radiation pressure could account for its unusual path. This raises intriguing possibilities, including the idea that it could be an alien probe, although this remains speculative. The discussion emphasizes the need for further investigation into the object's characteristics and origins.
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This past June, research by Marco Micheli et al was published in Nature:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0254-4/

The gist of this article is that 'Oumuamua, (aka 1L/2017 U1) 2017's interstellar asteroid, was not following a strictly gravitational path around the sun. There is practical certainty (30 sigma) that it was being pushed away from the sun during its transit. The out-gassing of comets causes them to be similarly pushed away from the sun, but there was no other indication that 'Oumuamua might be out-gassing. More specifically, out-gassing should have resulted in a change in 'Oumuamua's angular velocity and no such change occurred.

There is now a recent article by Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb
https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.11490
They demonstrate that if 'Oumuamua is very thin, solar radiation could explain the observed trajectory - and that such an asteroid could have survived a trek to our Solar System.
 
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.Scott said:
There is now a recent article by Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb
https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.11490
They demonstrate that if 'Oumuamua is very thin, solar radiation could explain the observed trajectory - and that such an asteroid could have survived a trek to our Solar System.
thanks, Scott

An interesting possibility :smile:Dave
 
Bwah! :oldsurprised: What! :oldsurprised:

Cigar-shaped interstellar object may have been an alien probe, Harvard paper claims [CNN]
Updated 10:47 AM ET, Tue November 6, 2018​

Wondering who on Earth would publish this, I found that they reference your referenced paper!:
.Scott said:
There is now a recent article by Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb
https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.11490

Alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that ‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.
...
A survey for lightsails as technosiganures in the Solar System is warranted, irrespective of whether ‘Oumuamua is one of them.
​

:bugeye:

Anyways, even if it's only a one in a bazillion chance, it's fun to think about. :oldsmile:
 
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Given how long it took to figure out the Pioneer anomaly, an object we knew all the details about, I'd wait a bit longer to proclaim "it's aliens!"...
 
.Scott said:
They demonstrate that if 'Oumuamua is very thin, solar radiation could explain the observed trajectory - and that such an asteroid could have survived a trek to our Solar System.
What do they mean by 'thin'? They talk about surface area to mass - does that mean they mean "thin-walled" - as in hollow?
 
DaveC426913 said:
What do they mean by 'thin'?

They seem to think about a paperborad with the same area density of ##{\textstyle{m \over A}} \approx 0.1{\textstyle{g \over {cm^2 }}}##. Of course this value doesn't necessarely mean that the thickness is in the range of millimeters. But even for a structure made of aerogel it would be not more than a meter.
 

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