Starship Blog

Project Lyra was prompted by the question of the feasibility of a spacecraft mission to ‘Oumuamua, the first object to be discovered definitely originating from outside our solar system – the first of its party or interstellar scout as is implied by the Hawaiian translation of its name. Many of you readers will have heard […]

So is ‘Oumuamua natural or artificial? First it should be understood that a clear and unequivocal answer to this can only be achieved by an in-situ examination. The artist impressions of ‘Oumuamua which have become memes on the internet generally depict ‘Oumuamua as an elongated cigar-shaped rock. This meme may have done a great deal […]

What did ‘Oumuamua see of Earth as it encountered the inner solar system? A speck of light from a distance and, as ‘Oumuamua reached its closest approach to earth, perigee (which was at 0.16 au), a disc with dark and bright areas according to the direction of incident sunlight. Let us ignore the dramatic changes […]

I found this an interesting little exercise. Let’s look at things from ‘Oumuamua’s perspective. What phase would it have seen Earth in as it travelled along its orbital path through the inner solar system? This is quantified by a parameter known as the phase angle. What is the phase angle? When the phase angle is […]

Adam Hibberd June 2022 Do you believe in interstellar travellers visiting us from afar? There is good news for you: a real interstellar traveller was observed by real astronomers passing through our celestial locale from late 2017 to January 2018. Unlike a great many strange objects, captured on camera as a still or film, often […]