# Found space object proves we are not alone \[Nothing is proven\] **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 22, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237 "2021-01-22T20:45:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rboyce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rboyce/32/4066_2.png) [@rboyce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rboyce)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/21 "2021-01-22T21:34:30Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > You mean, like Comet 67B? Thanks for your input. I find this stuff interesting & I think you do too ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/22 "2021-01-22T21:51:54Z")
Or 19P? Which appears to be the slightly less well endowed brother of Oumuamua. For the record, I’ve heard that some aliens appreciate girth over length, so they might take issue with that statement. [https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/styles/article\_main\_large/public/images/2001121811.jpg](https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_main_large/public/images/2001121811.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/23 "2021-01-22T21:54:45Z")
If we can’t prove that it’s not a probe then we need to hold a contest to rename it. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/24 "2021-01-22T21:56:28Z")
> [@rboyce](#): > > Please try to explain the shape. Everything we have discovered so far are basically round shaped objects. Nope. Asteroids come in all kinds of shapes, and even some moons are pretty lumpy. Planets are round(ish) because of their gravity. Smaller objects don’t have enough gravity to force all the mass down into a sphere. (Or not enough mass for gravity to have that effect…) You might want to read this. [http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Comets-and-Asteroids/Vital-Statistics-of-Asteroids-and-Comets.html](http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Comets-and-Asteroids/Vital-Statistics-of-Asteroids-and-Comets.html) ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/25 "2021-01-22T21:59:11Z")
> [@rboyce](#): > > Please try to explain the shape. Everything we have discovered so far are basically round shaped objects. Very large objects (like planets and moon) become round because their immense gravity forces them into that shape. Very small objects, like Oumuamua, do not. It’s a lot easier to spot very large objects than very small ones, so we’ve found a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/26 "2021-01-22T22:00:00Z")
> [@rboyce](#): > > Then your answer is maybe, maybe not? My answer is “it’s _possible_,”, but to say, “hey, it’s not a sphere, therefore it’s probably made by intelligent life” is a huge leap. There’s an awful lot about astronomy and astrophysics that we still don’t have a firm grasp on, and I think that discounting the idea that it’s a natural object simply due to its shape is faulty reasoning. ---
**Author:** ![rboyce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rboyce/32/4066_2.png) [@rboyce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rboyce)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/27 "2021-01-22T22:00:32Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > You might want to read this. I did and thanks for the link. Learning is the path to knowledge and with your help I am a bit smarter ---
**Author:** ![rboyce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rboyce/32/4066_2.png) [@rboyce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rboyce)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/28 "2021-01-22T22:01:47Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > My answer is “it’s _possible_ ,”, Thank you for your contribution to this topic ---
**Author:** ![rboyce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rboyce/32/4066_2.png) [@rboyce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rboyce)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/29 "2021-01-22T22:04:19Z")
I’ve learned what I needed to learn from this so I’m off to learning something new Later & thanks for your contribution ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/30 "2021-01-22T22:13:55Z")
> [@rboyce](#): > > Please try to explain the shape. Everything we have discovered so far are basically round shaped objects. And how many interstellar objects have we discovered so far? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/31 "2021-01-22T22:21:05Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > And how many interstellar objects have we discovered so far? Including this one? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/32 "2021-01-22T22:23:08Z")
That’s my point - you may be able to argue that this object is unusual compared to asteroids around the sun (although that’s debatable), but that doesn’t mean it is unusual compared to other interstellar objects, since we don’t have any other ones to compare it to. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/33 "2021-01-22T22:50:57Z")
Earlier thread: > [@Oumuamua: Aliens!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oumuamua-aliens/824062): > > Oumuamua was that piece of rock that sailed through the solar system from interstellar space. Odd shape, and apparently it behaved strangely, taking on speed that it should not have. \*[Now](https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/scientists-say-mysterious-oumuamua-object-could-be-alien-spacecraft-ncna931381) a pair of Harvard researchers are raising the possibility that Oumuamua is an alien spacecraft. As they say in a paper to be published Nov. 12 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the object “may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.” The researchers aren… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/34 "2021-01-22T22:56:11Z")
> [@rboyce](#): > > I did and thanks for the link. > Learning is the path to knowledge and with your help I am a bit smarter You’re gonna love this one. > **[433 Eros](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/433_Eros)** > > Eros (minor planet designation (433) Eros; provisional designation 1898 DQ) is a stony asteroid of the Amor group, and the first discovered, and second-largest near-Earth object. It has an elongated shape and a volume-equivalent diameter of approximately 16.8 kilometers (10.4 miles). Visited by the NEAR Shoemaker space probe in 1998, it became the first asteroid ever studied from its own orbit. > The asteroid was discovered by German astronomer C. G. Witt at the Berlin Observatory on 13 August 1... ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/35 "2021-01-22T22:58:58Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > And how many interstellar objects have we discovered so far Two. > **['Oumuamua and Borisov Are Just the Beginning of an Interstellar Object Bonanza](https://www.space.com/astronomers-expect-more-interstellar-objects.html)** > > Astronomers are expecting a flood of detections of interstellar objects. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/36 "2021-01-22T23:02:06Z")
Bonanza? That is all we need. As if the universe did not already suck enough as it is, now it is throwing shit at us all the time. Wait till one of those things gets identified as a chunk out of the LMC. ---
**Author:** ![rboyce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rboyce/32/4066_2.png) [@rboyce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rboyce)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/37 "2021-01-22T23:02:11Z")
> [@Oumuamua: Aliens!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oumuamua-aliens/824062/1): > > Oumuamua was that piece of rock that sailed through the solar system from interstellar space. You are assuming it is made of “rock” ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/38 "2021-01-22T23:02:30Z")
You are assuming it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![rboyce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rboyce/32/4066_2.png) [@rboyce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rboyce)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/39 "2021-01-22T23:03:53Z")
may we remain assuming different assumptions and still remain friends ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237/40 "2021-01-22T23:21:29Z")
> [@rboyce](#): > > Please try to explain the shape. Everything we have discovered so far are basically round shaped objects. Is it not possible that over many cosmic collisions over millions of years that large scale, accidental flint knapping has occurred thus producing spear head shaped ejecta? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-space-object-proves-we-are-not-alone-nothing-is-proven/931237.md?page=3)