My thoughts exactly. Why inhale would an advanced alien civilization send us a fucking rock?TL DR, a couple of guys there made a huge list of possible explanations and that's one among many, not the most likely by far and doesn't have data supporting it. But it makes for great headlines.
My thoughts exactly. Why inhale would an advanced alien civilization send us a fucking rock?
It's hard enough to survive the trip while being cheap to build, heavy enough to not suffer huge interference during its travel through gravitational interaction with small objects, thus keeping its trajectory predictable and finally can be more easily tracked passively by your own passive sensors, EM and grav' telescopes over its route to catch it back when it comes around.My thoughts exactly. Why inhale would an advanced alien civilization send us a fucking rock?
Oh I meant FTL. Yeah that would make sense. But how would it communicate? And if we didn't have the advancement to communicate, why would they send it in the first place?A STL civilization sending a probe to another system would have a number of reasons to send it within a large rock.
That's the idea. With a heavy enough rock, you can predict its gravitational interactions more accurately since it won't be fucked by any small object around on the way but mainly stars. So you can throw it in a way that allows it to come back on its own after getting close to the targeted star or stars, using minimum trajectory corrections. A pretty long-haul mission, sure, but it could make sense that way. Bonus point as it would be a pretty safe exploration mission in a scenario where the Fermi paradox is explained by the presence of psychopaths who fire RKKV at any civilization broadcasting its presence.Oh I meant FTL. Yeah that would make sense. But how would it communicate? And if we didn't have the advancement to communicate, why would they send it in the first place?
i mean the thread seems accurate to what they did say IMOTL DR, a couple of guys there made a huge list of possible explanations and that's one among many, not the most likely by far and doesn't have data supporting it. But it makes for great headlines.
imo if it's ET, it's far more plausible that it's from a dead civ that became a victim of the filter than something extant and seriously investing in million year long space missions. That's an outlandish period of time even for immortals, and if it's ET it's some relic of a dead civ still aimlessly drifting through space. Sorta like Voyager.That's the idea. With a heavy enough rock, you can predict its gravitational interactions more accurately since it won't be fucked by any small object around on the way but mainly stars. So you can throw it in a way that allows it to come back on its own after getting close to the targeted star or stars, using minimum trajectory corrections. A pretty long-haul mission, sure, but it could make sense that way. Bonus point as it would be a pretty safe exploration mission in a scenario where the Fermi paradox is explained by the presence of psychopaths who fire RKKV at any civilization broadcasting its presence.
imo if it's ET, it's far more plausible that it's from a dead civ that became a victim of the filter than something extant and seriously investing in million year long space missions. That's an outlandish period of time even for immortals, and if it's ET it's some relic of a dead civ still aimlessly drifting through space. Sorta like Voyager.