Here comes the science bit

[Alberon]

So it's not actually elongated?

It is, but the fact that it is tumbling means it's probably not a spaceship. Scientists worked out its elongated shape from variances in the light coming from it.

The first round of listening to the asteroid heard nothing. Not that I really have to report that as if something had been heard it would be the biggest news story of all time.

[steve98]

How is this shard (that's what it is: a shard) supposed to be emitting these proposed radio signals? Is there supposed to be some kind of a transmitter attached to it?

[touchingcloth]

How is this shard (that's what it is: a shard) supposed to be emitting these proposed radio signals? Is there supposed to be some kind of a transmitter attached to it?

The shape of it suggests that it might (not particularly strongly so, but a bit) not be natural in origin. They're just pointing listening equipment at it firstly on the off chance that it's been made by aliens, and secondly on the off chance that, if it is, it might be transmitting signals of some kind.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Not arsed mate, Fermi.

[touchingcloth]

You're not arsed, but you also think it's for you? I don't understand.

[steve98]

You're not arsed, but you also think it's for you? I don't understand.

Fermi was a geezer, Italian, after who is named Fermi's Pair Of Socks, which likens - not very imaginatively - the non-evidence for aliens to a pair of socks.

[Alberon]

I'd put it to you that the oft-noted mystery of one sock of a pair going missing during a wash is, in of itself, proof aliens are among us today.

[steve98]

Putting the alien question aside for a minute - would you be interested in buying a signed copy of your avatar's autobiography "Little Goes A Long way"? Cos I have one -

"Best wishes to Chris & Steve. God Bless".
And underneath is his sig.

He signed it after a talk and social night at Cathcart Parish church, Glasgow in 1999.

To be honest it's not much of a read but it's in good condition and the signature is clear.

[Alberon]

Thanks, but

[Alberon]

A BBC plug for The Sky at Night masquerading as a news article.

Oumuamua is tumbling chaotically.

The space interloper 'Oumuamua is spinning chaotically and will carry on doing so for more than a billion years.

That is the conclusion of new Belfast research that has examined in detail the light bouncing off the cigar-shaped asteroid from outside our Solar System.

"At some point or another it's been in a collision," says Dr Wes Fraser from Queen's University.

His team's latest study is featured in Sunday's Sky At Night episode on the BBC and published in Nature Astronomy.

...

The Queen's team wanted to establish the exact nature and rate of the object's rotation.

To do this, the group studied variations in its brightness over time.

Almost immediately, Dr Fraser and colleagues could see that it was not spinning periodically like many small asteroids, but spinning chaotically - it was tumbling.

In Sunday's Sky At Night programme on BBC Four, the Queen's researcher illustrates this with the aid of a tennis table bat.

Throw it in the air one way and it will turn over evenly about a single axis; throw it up another way and it is possible to make the paddle turn over in an apparently haphazard way.

"It quickly starts to wobble around chaotically, and that's what we call tumbling," he tells presenter Chris Lintott.

The most probable explanation is that 'Oumuamua has been hit by another object at some point in its history.

The team can't say exactly when that happened but what they can say is that the tumbling will continue for at least a billion years.

"The tumbling actually causes stresses and strains internal to the object, and that slowly but surely squeezes and pulls on the object just like tides on the Earth to remove energy from the spin," explains Dr Fraser. This dampening process takes a very, very long time.

Dr Fraser says it is reasonable to assume the collision occurred in 'Oumuamua's own stellar system before it was then kicked out.

Oumuamua shouldn't be unique there should be similar interstellar asteroids passing through nearly all the time. A new telescope should make finding them a lot easier.

There is though, a new observatory coming that may change this game completely. It is called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and it will come online in the next couple of years.

With its 8.4m primary mirror and super-digital camera, it will image the entire viewable sky from its position in Chile every few nights.

If anything is moving across the sky, it will be hard to escape the attention of the LSST.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43018706

[Cerys]

It's tumbling chaotically, being gradually polished by space dust, until it reaches its final form:

[BlodwynPig]

In Sunday's Sky At Night programme on BBC Four, the Queen's researcher illustrates this with the aid of a tennis table bat.

[Camp Tramp]

I'm looking forward to the James Webb array being fully operational, extrasolar planets are what excite e at the moment.

[mothman]

Where is this image from? It's not a producstion still, I don't think.

[Cerys]

Not sure - GIS threw it at me in response to a search for "2001 monolith".

[samadriel]

'Oumuamua

[JesusAndYourBush]

It is, but the fact that it is tumbling means it's probably not a spaceship.

If a spaceship had travelled such vast distances as this Ummagumma thing has, it'd presumably out of control, and perhaps had a number of collisions with other space debris which could have set it spinning.

Like a couple of the early Russian space flights which were rumoured to have shot off into space rather than attaining orbit, so they kept on going.  They're probably quite far away by now.  Maybe they're spinning.