Paul McDevitt
Space oddity
SHMUEL Bialy and Avi Loeb at Harvard University have come up with a novel explanation for the origin of ‘Oumuamua, the interstellar object seen passing through our solar system in October 2017.
They calculate that it may not be shaped like a lumpy asteroid or comet, but instead be flat and wide. If it is a big sheet, it could behave like a light sail, which could account for apparent anomalies in its trajectory.
But the researchers aren’t just suggesting it has a strange shape. “‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by…
