By: Duncan Lunan

Duncan Lunan — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 14:09:15 +0000

In ‘Space Notes’ for JHC Vol.10 No.3, I said that the discovery had provided the first example of an interstellar comet like the one in my most successful short story, ‘The Comet, the Cairn and the Capsule’. Not long afterwards it was decided that the object was more asteroid than comet, and there were thoughts that it might even be a starship, though listening watches picked up no signals from it (Ian Sample, ‘Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? Initial scans show no signs of technology’, The Guardian, 14 December 2017). . Funnily enough my first professional sale in 1967 was of a story called ‘Derelict’ about a derelict starship entering the Solar System; it wasn’t published till 1974 but then got a Nebula recommendation.
It now seems that such objects could be passing undetected through the Solar System in large numbers, possibly even in thousands (Matt Williams, ‘The Solar System Probably Has Thousands of Captured Interstellar Asteroids’, Universe Today, 7th February 2018), In that case they could come from almost any direction – which makes it highly remarkable that the first one we’ve detected should have come from near Vega, very close to the Apex of the Sun’s Way through interstellar space, and have been travelling at approximately 12 miles per second, very close to the Sun’s velocity with respect to the interstellar medium.
That raises three possibilities, and it’s hard to know which is least likely. (1) Oumuamua’s speed and direction are both coincidences, though either would be striking on its own; (2) Oumuamua was in effect lying in wait for us, directly in our path and at rest with respect to the surrounding medium; (3) like the signals in Gregory Benford’s novel “Timescape”, Oumuamua is from the future.
As I mentioned, there’s a proposal for a ‘Project Lyra’ to send a space probe in pursuit of Oumuamua as it recedes from us. I really think we should!

Comments on: Oumuamua – Out of touch

By: Duncan Lunan