Harvard scientists say mysterious interstellar object could be an alien spacecraft

Oumuamua.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Beyond Space)

Oumuamua, the first interstellar object spotted in the solar system, could very well be an alien spacecraft, two Harvard researchers say.

The size of a stadium, Oumuamua is flat and elongated, and accelerated as it tumbled past the sun. It's very different from the typical asteroid or comet, and in a paper that will be published Nov. 12 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Avi Loeb and Shmuel Bialy write that it "may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.