Re:Harvard astronomer argues that alien vessel paid us a visit
by throwaway316943 on Monday February 08, 2021 @04:05PM
(#26070101)
It’s hard to tell since it’s velocity is very close to the mean of the velocities of systems in our local neighborhood. We do know that it probably passed close to another system (Oort cloud distance) but no exact origin has been identified.
(A) Assuming sub-light travel, (B) no energy/mass-intensive interstellar major course corrections, (C) planetary origin... shouldn't we be able to work out where and when it was last in the vicinity of a viable source?
And at the distances (and therefore timescales) we're talking about, we might also hit low-metallicity systems... which would make intelligent, space-faring life less likely.
(Not impossible, but getting around convenient chemistry at a civilization-scale seems unlikely)