<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of my pet peeves has always been the insertion of unfamiliar terms and foriegn phrases in written works without a) context, b) the proper pronunciation, and\/or c) a reason for the inclusion to be there (beyond showing readers that the author knows what they mean).\u00a0 The first time I read about \u2018<\/span>coureur de bois\u2019<\/span><\/i> in a document I was using in my classes, I went straight to our French teacher, David Morin.\u00a0 I said, \u201cOh, I hate when they do this.\u00a0 What the heck is a \u2018<\/span>coureur de bois\u2019?\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>David\u2019s explanation was along the lines of, \u201cLoosely translated, it means \u2018<\/span>runners of the woods\u2019 <\/span><\/i>or <\/span>\u2018boys of the woods<\/span><\/i>\u2019.\u00a0 It was used for the French-Canadian traders who first explored New France and began trading furs with the First Nation people.\u201d This explanation became a constant point of clarification every time this document was cited in my class.\u00a0 The following is a good example of something that would have frustrated me had it not been cleared up in the book recommended by my old friend, <\/span>NASA In The Schools<\/span><\/i> presenter Ralph Winrich.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u2018Oumuamua<\/span><\/i> is a Hawaiian word (pronounced \u201coh <\/span>moo<\/span><\/i> ah <\/span>moo\u201d<\/span><\/i>) loosely translated as \u201cscout.\u201d\u00a0 It is the name the International Astronomical Union attached to an object that passed through our inner Solar System in the fall of 2017.\u00a0 The \u2018official\u2019 IAU designation is \u20181I\/2017 U1\u2019.\u00a0 The easier to remember \u2018Oumuamua handle comes from the geographical location of the\u00a0 Pan – STARRS telescope that had discovered this object.\u00a0 Pan-STARRS is actually a network of telescopes and high-definition cameras located on the top of the dormant Haleakala volcano on the island of Maui.\u00a0 The mount top location of the observatory reduces the atmospheric interference giving astronomers a clearer view of our celestial neighborhood.\u00a0 Only space based telescope platforms offer better views from their lofty orbits beyond the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.\u00a0 In his book <\/span>Extraterrestrial – The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth <\/span><\/i>(2021 – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Harvard Astro-physicist Avi Loeb explains what the data collected during \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s solar fly-by might teach us about other interstellar visitors.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Avi Loeb grew up on a farm outside of Tel Aviv, Israel.\u00a0 His earliest academic training had him leaning toward a career in philosophy, particularly the field of existentialism.\u00a0 Avi\u2019s military training in the Israeli Defense Forces included physics and mathematics, subjects close enough to his love of philosophy to keep his inquisitive mind engaged.\u00a0 Before they were called \u2018scientists\u2019, early men of science were called \u2018philosophers\u2019 so he was okay with his course of study.\u00a0 Avi began to realize that philosophers spent more time generating questions than seeking answers, a revelation that found him pursuing studies in astrophysics when his hitch was done.\u00a0 Loeb first arrived at Princeton, New Jersey on a grant to do postgraduate work at the Institute for Advanced Study.\u00a0 After three years at IAS, he was encouraged to apply for a junior faculty position, eventually landing one in the astronomy department at Harvard.\u00a0 Many candidates turned down this same opportunity because \u2018JFs\u2019 were not usually put on the fast track toward tenured positions.\u00a0 Avi arrived in 1993 and received tenure three years later.\u00a0 He met Ofrit Liviatan on a blind date in Tel Aviv in 1997 and they were wed two years later.\u00a0 Living just outside of Boston, both now work at Harvard, Ofrit serving as the director of the university\u2019s freshman seminar program.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Loeb drew a fair amount of attention from the media with his pronouncement that data gathered from \u2018Oumaumau\u2019s pass through of our Solar System pointed to it possibly being an artificially created object rather than a naturally occuring one.\u00a0 As soon as the term \u2018extraterrestrial\u2019 was attached, everyone in the media wanted to get a sound bite of Avi proclaiming \u2018Oumuamua was a real life manifestation of the movie <\/span>E.T. <\/span><\/i>(or perhaps <\/span>War of the Worlds<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Loeb was more inclined to discuss what the data collected about this interstellar object and not \u2018LGMs\u2019 (little green men).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Avi compared the people who dismissed anomalous data about \u2018Oumuamua with those who tried Galileo for heresy without bothering to look through his telescope.\u00a0 Galileo turned the astronomical world upside down by reporting his telescope showed the Moon to be a body not unlike the Earth with hills, valleys, and shadows cast across its surface.\u00a0 The church of the day decreed all celestial objects to be of \u2018perfect, divine origin with the Earth at the center\u2019.\u00a0 Galileo violated dogma by placing the Earth orbiting the Sun and a tribunal convicted him for it.\u00a0 Galileo was sentenced to house arrest only because he had friends in high places, a veritable slap on the wrist compared to others found guilty of heresy.\u00a0 His contemporary, Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake for espousing similar Heliocentric (Sun-centered) views of the Solar System.\u00a0 Forced to recanted his problematic \u2018the Earth goes around the Sun\u2019 statement, Galileo is said to have mumbled, \u201cBut it [the Earth] does move.\u201d\u00a0 A reporter asked Loeb, \u201cSo, you think you are Galileo?\u201d\u00a0 Loeb insisted he was only saying ignoring observations showing \u2018Oumuamau did not behave like a naturally occurring object and not considering what the data might show was akin to what had happened to Galileo.\u00a0 The inference that Galileo was right (and exonerated some 350 years later) may not have stuck with the sound-bite seeking press.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Much of the data collected from \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s encounter with the Sun came from satellites searching for comets and asteroids crossing the Earth\u2019s orbit.\u00a0 By the time \u2018Oumuamua was detected on October 19, 2017, it was already heading away from the Sun.\u00a0 Analysing the data collected over eleven days as it sped out of the Solar System confirmed it to be an interstellar object.\u00a0 In other words, it was not tied to our Solar System\u2019s gravity field and was just passing through.\u00a0 It had to have originated from somewhere outside of our Solar System.\u00a0 Had it been a comet or small asteroid, it would have followed a precise path dictated by the pull of the Sun\u2019s gravity.\u00a0 Two particular observations made \u2018Oumuamua unusual:\u00a0 The way the Sun\u2019s light was reflected off the body and an unexpected change in direction that took place as it left the inner Solar System.\u00a0 The visitor\u2019s anomalous behavior led Loeb and his colleagues to speculate that it might not be \u2018just another space rock\u2019, but perhaps an artificially created object.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0First, Loeb considered the cyclical pattern produced by the light reflecting off \u2018Oumuamua.<\/span><\/p>\n The regular brightening and dimming indicated the object was rotating every eight hours.\u00a0 This implied that it had an extreme shape at least five to ten times longer than its width.\u00a0 Early artistic renderings wanted to show \u2018Oumuamua as a slender, cigar shaped object.\u00a0 Most comets or asteroids have more of a spherical shape (but not necessarily \u2018round\u2019).\u00a0 The improbability of a naturally created exotic shape hinted at by the data was enough to make Loeb consider whether or not \u2018Oumuamua had been formed naturally.\u00a0 The evidence Avi and his associates used to hypothesize \u2018Oumuamua may be an artificial engine leaned on one of Sherlock Holmes maxims:\u00a0 \u201cWhen you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, <\/span>however improbable<\/span><\/i>, must be the truth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Loeb theorized the data could also fit a disk shaped object like a lightsail.\u00a0 He was involved in planning a mission to send a small, lightweight probe to the closest Earth-like planet, Proxima b, orbiting the Sun\u2019s closest neighbor, Proxima Centauri.\u00a0 Called the StarShot Initiative, the idea is to use a powerful laser to push a small sensor chip (called a StarChip) attached to a lightsail.\u00a0 To reach the planetary system within the lifetime of the program\u2019s developers requires this combination of laser and lightsail to push the payload to one fifth the speed of light.\u00a0 Loeb\u2019s previous work with lightsail technology led some to bring up the old saw:\u00a0 \u201cWhoever only has a hammer will see nothing but nails.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, Avi had worked on a lightsail project so he would only see a lightsail in the \u2018Oumuamua data.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is it far fetched to picture artificially created space debris passing through our Solar System? Humans have launched several craft (Voyager 1 and 2 for example) that have now departed the planetary fringe of our own system.\u00a0 With a probable 6 BILLION Earth-like planets in our own galaxy, it is just a tad arrogant to think there is but one that is inhabited.\u00a0 Perhaps we have had other artificial interstellar objects pass our way in the past but only now do we have the technology necessary to see them.\u00a0 There was little in the data suggesting \u2018Oumaumua matched observations one would expect from a \u2018normal\u2019 comet or asteroid passing our way.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For its size and reflectivity, it would have been unusual for an object of this size to gain enough solar energy to change its orbital characteristics the way \u2018Oumuamua did.\u00a0 The lack of any outgassing of material (as happens when icy comets near the Sun and grow a tail of material derived from the body of the comet being heated, vapourized, and expelled) pointed to an object that was not a type of comet.\u00a0 When astronomers began proposing other exotic blends of frozen material to account for the lack of outgassing, Loeb reminded them it was better to have the data reflect previously documented observations. \u00a0 When the instruments trained on \u2018Oumuamua were not able to detect compounds or elements that would normally be ejected from a naturally occuring comet or asteroid, Loeb had his second bit of evidence to add to his hypothesis.\u00a0 Searching for a magical mixture never seen before to account for \u2018Oumuoamua\u2019s\u00a0 behavior stretched the data a bit far for Avi and his associates.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The last thing that spurred Loeb to consider artificial origins for \u2018Oumuamua was the deviation it took away from what should have been a relatively clean, mathematically proven orbit.\u00a0 Certainly, outgassing from a comet can change its orbit slightly, but the random nature of the gas ejections make it a rather jerky movement.\u00a0 \u2018Oumuamua deviated from the predicted orbit with a smooth acceleration that suggested propulsion or control.\u00a0 The amount of energy needed for outgassing to cause this change would have amounted to an astounding 10 percent of \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s mass (if indeed it was some sort of exotic comet).\u00a0 If it was some form of lightsail, the acceleration and deviation in orbit would be easier to explain.\u00a0 No doubt, \u2018Oumuamua was a weird object that displayed enough anomalous behaviors to leave the door open a bit from the other theories put forth to explain what it was and how it acted.\u00a0 The data was clear, but the answer(s) may not be clear until we see other similar interstellar visitors.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Should we be spending time searching for evidence of extraterrestrial life?\u00a0 Loeb thinks we should be spending time and money gathering data.\u00a0 As mentioned previously, with six BILLION Earth-like stars in our own galaxy, it surpasses any cultural, religious, non-religious, scientific, or flat out denial of science to be arrogant enough to say, \u201cThere are no other life forms in the cosmos.\u201d\u00a0 The small group of astronomers willing to even search for it are outweighed by those who choose to chase \u2018safer\u2019 topics that insure funding for their projects.\u00a0 Remember the stir caused when the Large Hadron Collider came online?\u00a0 It was designed to search for data supporting \u2018supersymmetry\u2019 (by definition:\u00a0 <\/span>The correspondence between fermions and bosons of identical mass that is postulated to have existed during the opening moments of the big bang and that relates gravity to the other forces of nature<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 There were unfounded fears the LHC at CERN (the shortened version of the French name for the \u2018European Council for Nuclear Research\u2019) would open some sort of rift that would result in the destruction of the universe, which it did not do.\u00a0 This particle accelerator cost a little less than FIVE BILLION dollars to construct and an additional one billion dollars per year to operate.\u00a0 Loeb\u2019s point in bringing up the LHC is simply this:\u00a0 \u201cIf the scientific consensus eventually gives up on the [supersymmetry] theory, it will do so after vast expense and generations of effort.\u00a0 Until we have invested similarly in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, flat declarations about what \u2018Oumuamua is and isn\u2019t should be judged accordingly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The serious search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence started on Earth in 1959 at Cornell University as the brainchild of Phillip Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi.\u00a0 They reasoned\u00a0 the surest sign of other intelligence in the Universe would be to find interstellar broadcasts at a radio frequency of 1.42 GHz – the wavelength of neutral hydrogen.\u00a0 Surely any civilizations as advanced (or more advanced) as ours would understand the, \u201cUnique, objective standard of frequency, which must be known to every observer in the universe.\u201d\u00a0 Like the LHC, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has yet to uncover any data suggesting they have achieved their goal.\u00a0 Formal funding for SETI ended in 1993 when the U.S. government gave NASA 12.26 million dollars to begin its own radio astronomy program, yet there are still other SETI programs continuing to search for the elusive \u2018we are here\u2019 signal Morrison and Cocconi suggested we should be looking for.\u00a0 Some of the current searches have enlisted volunteers with home computers and time on their hands to help sort through the vast amounts of data still being collected.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the reasons humanity is having a hard time wrapping its collective mind around an extraterrestrial origin for \u2018Oumuamua comes from lack of previous experience.\u00a0 Loeb suggests our reactions to such a hypothesis would be much different if we had previously discovered signs of organic life on Mars several decades ago.\u00a0 He poses the following scenario:\u00a0 \u201cAnd now imagine that forty years after evidence of organic life was found on Mars, a small interstellar object – highly luminous, oddly tumbling, with a 91 percent probability of being disk-shaped – passed through our solar system and, without visible outgassing, smoothly accelerated from a path that deviated from the force of the Sun\u2019s gravity alone, with an extra push that declined inversely with distance squared?\u00a0 What, in this alternate reality, do you think would have been the public\u2019s reaction to such a hypothesis?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Early 2021, Arizona State University Astrophysicists Steven Desch and Alan Jackson presented their own theory:\u00a0 \u2018Oumuamua is a flat slice sheared off a planetoid elsewhere in the galaxy.\u00a0 It unique observations noted in the data were caused by the object being composed mostly of nitrogen ice.\u00a0 The pair used similar observations of other bodies known to be covered with nitrogen ice, Pluto and Triton, to show the data was similar to \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s reflectivity.\u00a0 The disk-like shape was attained as this piece of planetoid was whittled down by radiation much like a bar of soap becomes smaller and thinner over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have no way to gauge whether or not this view is more or less probable than Loeb\u2019s theory, but Desch and Jackson have certainly taken the path Loeb predicted most would take.\u00a0 Is the ASU explanation another case of bending the data to (more or less) keep \u2018Oumuamua\u2019s origins in the realm of \u2018naturally occurring objects\u2019?\u00a0 Perhaps.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Life as we know it on Earth requires water.\u00a0 Our probes to Mars have proven without a doubt\u00a0 there had been liquid water on the Red Planet, enough to leave behind dry river beds and layers of sediments that could only have been deposited in bodies of water.\u00a0 Being a little too far out from the \u2018habitable zone\u2019, the conditions needed for the liquid water necessary for organic life changed on the planet.\u00a0 Mars may or may not have had time to develop detectable life forms.\u00a0 How many of those six BILLION Earth-like planets out there might be orbiting in the Goldie Locks zone (you know, where the temperature is \u2018just right\u2019) that allows organic life to flourish on our home world?\u00a0 Stay tuned as the search continues.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 The Ventures get to orbital velocity on this take of Telstar<\/i>\u00a0. . . speaking of space debris!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of my pet peeves has always been the insertion of unfamiliar terms and foriegn phrases in written works without a) context, b) the proper pronunciation, and\/or c) a reason for the inclusion to be there (beyond showing readers that the author knows what they mean).\u00a0 The first time I read about \u2018coureur de […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2147,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions\/2147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}