The space rock was spotted by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US. The Pan-STARRS telescope caught the object when it was already heading out of our solar system.
Loeb describes the actions and appearance of the wayward object, as puzzling.
Its speed and trajectory proved it was not native to the Earth. No current spacecraft moves that fast. And it was too far away for scientists to analyze it properly.
Loeb says that ʻOumuamua isn’t shaped like the other chunks of rock we see floating around the solar system. It’s either a rod or pancake shape, either of which would be pretty odd. It also appeared to be tumbling with uneven rotational periods. Perhaps most perplexing is the small but detectable acceleration as it spun off into space.”
ʻOumuamua started all this, but sadly, we will probably never know what it really was,” he adds.
The Galileo Project
A group of private donors is funding the Galileo Project with about $1.75 million. The Project will rely on a network of telescopes and astronomical survey data to search for evidence of “extraterrestrial technological civilizations” (ETCs).
