"Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that ‘Oumuamua is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment," researchers wrote in the paper.
The paper continues: "Lightsails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by our own civilization, including the IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative. The lightsail technology might be abundantly used for transportation of cargos between planets or between stars."
They even theorized that Oumuamua "may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization," though that scenario was called "exotic."
The paper was written by postdoctoral researcher Shmuel Bialy and professor Abraham Loeb, the director at the CfA's Institute for Theory and Computation.
Other studies have suggested that other "Oumuamua-like objects" will potentially enter our solar system, with some potentially carrying life.
"The likelihood of Galactic panspermia is strongly dependent upon the survival lifetime of the putative organisms as well as the velocity of the transporter," according to a paper published in The Astronomical Journal by Manasvi Lingam and the aforementioned Loeb.
Asimov wrote a short story about Light sailing. I believe involved a race around Saturn or Jupiter, It was something like a solar system America’s cup. Ship I think was called “Diana”.
This is probably someone needed a publication for tenure.
Or it could be “caca de toro.”
Another illegal alien Caravan? Will it never end?
It might be unicorn poop.
I don’t pretend to be a scientist, but riddle me this: if
light is pushing a light sail, wouldn’t it move AWAY from the source of light? The sunlight should send it off in another direction long before it approaches the sun. Same with any other star system it approaches. Where am I going wrong?
Someone read “Rendezvous with Rama” by Arthur C. Clarke and took it to heart.