‘Aliens’ Is Not A Scientific Explanation For Interstellar Asteroid ʻOumuamua
When scientists claim that an unexplained phenomenon might be due to aliens, they’re giving up on science.
Whenever science discovers a new, unexpected phenomenon, it represents a tremendous opportunity to learn something new about our Universe. Last year, the first unambiguously interstellar object, ʻOumuamua, flew through our Solar System, delighting and amazing astronomers worldwide. Coming in at a steep angle with an incredibly large speed and a bizarre, cigar-like shape, it must have originated far away and long ago, most likely from a distant star system.
Surprisingly, as scientists observed it speeding away from the Sun, it appeared to accelerate away, deviating from the simple predictions that Newton’s law of gravity dictated. What could have caused it? According to a new paper by Harvard scientists Schmuel Baily and Avi Loeb, it could have been due to an alien-created lightsail from a distant, extraterrestrial civilization. Although the idea has taken the world by storm, it’s a shocking example of sensationalist, ill-motivated science.
