(WHDH) — A cigar-shaped space rock that recently passed by earth could have actually been a spacecraft deployed by aliens, according to a leading astronomer at Penn State University.
The comet-like rock, named “Oumuamua,” zoomed by earth in November. Unlike most space rocks, astronomers said Oumuamua appeared to have been tumbling through the universe.
Dr. Jason Wright suggested that the rock moved in the exact same way as a broken alien spacecraft would, according to the Daily Mail.
“Such derelict craft would, if they are not travelling so fast that they escape the Galaxy, eventually ‘thermalize’ with the stars and end up drifting around like any other interstellar comet or asteroid,” Wright wrote in a blog post.
As if the object’s movement was not odd enough, Oumuamua means “a messenger from afar arriving first” in Hawaiian.
“In fact, since they (presumably) no longer have attitude control, one would expect that they would eventually begin to tumble, and if they are very rigid that tumbling might distinguish them from ordinary interstellar asteroids,” Wright wrote.
The object was also said to be the wrong shape to be confused with an asteroid because they are usually round.
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