Was 'Oumuamua​ an alien spaceship? No. Here’s what it is.

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  • Oumuamua, a quarter-mile long asteroid tumbling through space, is Hawaiian for "scout", or "the first of many".
  • It was given this name because it came from another solar system.
  • Some claimed 'Oumuamua was an alien technology, but there's no actual evidence for that.
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The government’s secret UFO reading list is revealed. Wow.

FOIA release sheds light on the DOD's own struggle to understand UFOs.

(Vladi333/SONY/Big Think)
  • A just-unclassified Department of Defense reading list on UFOs is stunning.
  • The DOD is wondering if the truth lies in some of the most far-out theories.
  • Science fiction has nothing on science fact.
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Top 5 messages sent to alien civilizations

Between Carl Sagan's laughter, the brainwaves of somebody in love, and a live theremin concert, humanity has sent a lot of data out into the stars.

ESA/Hubble & NASA
  • Ever since we've had the capability, humanity has been desperately trying to make contact with other life in the universe.
  • While we've been beaming out information passively through our television and radio broadcasts, we've also sent more intentional messages.
  • Looking at these messages tells us how humanity wants to think of itself and what kind of relationship we hope to have with alien life.
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Michio Kaku: Let’s not advertise our existence to aliens

The countdown continues! The 4th most popular video from 2018 involves humanity hiding behind a tree.

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  • If advanced alien civilizations do exist, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku asks: Why would they want anything to do with us? It would be like an academic talking to a squirrel, he suggests, and he has a great point.
  • Hollywood and science fiction novels have conditioned us for years to believe that aliens either want to hang out on our intellectual level and learn from us... or destroy us. If alien life really does have the technology and know-how to make it all the way here, perhaps we should just play it cool and not assume that we are the top species in the universe.
  • Kaku speculates that our hypothetical demise would come at the hands of an intelligence civilization that sees us as no more than deer in the woods and wipes us out by accident — just as we have done to (what we deem) less remarkable species since time immemorial. Our best bet for survival? Lie low.
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What to do if the 'Oumuamua space "probe" comes around again

Time to build a Corellian shipyard?

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  • Two Harvard researchers recently speculated that an object that entered into our solar system was an interstellar probe.
  • The odds that this is what happened are quite literally astronomical.
  • If humans are to build spaceships to chase after the probe, we'll need to come to a greater understanding of how to manipulate dark energy that exists in the universe.
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Surprising Science