'Oumuamua: Our first interstellar visitor - Chris Lintott

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In 2017, the Solar System was visited by an object named 'Oumuamua, which came from another star. The unusual properties of this first interstellar visitor led some to suggest it may be an alien spacecraft - but the truth is that its oddness is already teaching us lessons about how solar systems form.
This lecture also considers the prospects of discovering more unusual objects in the Solar System, and what we might do about asteroids that threaten the Earth.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Chris Lintott on 24th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
www.gresham.ac.uk/speakers/pr...
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/o...
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[@GreshamCollege]

Chris appeared on the latest episode of our podcast 'Any Further Questions?' to answer all the questions we didn't have time to get to. Listen on Spotify and Apple now!

[@mickhealy572]

Show this for a laugh to your colleges...Australia, QLD, midcoast Feb 2008 between 4-5pm my children yelled for me to see something in the sky, I replied its a plane not wanting to be bothered and they yelled back it was to big so I bolted to the front yard and saw them pointing to a dark hazy mass high in the east about the size of half the moon and it was rapidly with each second getting larger, I was baffled to what it was and watched as it grew in seconds and blanketed half the sky in broad daylight like a shadow, I had no idea what was going on and then it clarified into perfect detail, absolutely perfect detail, it was a coal black asteroid or as it appeared a chunk of a black moon or even planet such was its size, it was no formless rock, for size I was an ant watching a freight train go by at incredible speed for something so mind boggling immense almost beyond human comprehension in size, it seemed to me bigger than the earth, the most fantastic, incredible and dread sight ever seen by a human in all of time, the angle of the afternoon sunlight illuminated its facing surface and side cliffs but it did not reflect light, it was shadow black despite direct sunlight, the facing surface stretched away not ending blanketing half the sky the entire time and the side cliffs went up and up what seemed thousands of kilometres without ending and just fading not ending as they went on and on by at incredible speed, ;like an ant watching a train go by, my first thought on realising what it was I was seeing was to get the camera but I realised two things as well, first it was going too fast and I would miss it if I tried and that it was probably the end of the world or so it seemed so I just decided to watch and soak it up, plainly it was a chunk of a much larger object if you can picture a chunk of a dark moon\planet\comet with surface facing and all the way to the core showing as side cliffs.. almost beyond comprehension in size, and still imprinted in my mind, the whole show lasted about 10 seconds or so before it abruptly faded away, completely astounded for a while, completely astounded when no mention or trace could be found in the following days, weeks, months, years, astounded at the level of vitriolic hate I received for telling this tale so I stopped and said nothing more for several years except that soon we will see a new space race and to Mars within a decade which also drew mockery and derision at the time as also impossible in the time frame I claimed.Then in feb 2017 I read a russian astronomer claimed we have a massive asteroid on an intersect orbit and we are all being deceived to its existence, that much I can attest to, it missed us by a minute in 08 and not a whisper despite it being unmissable by the space agencies and being 9 years to the month after what I saw seemed more than a coincidence and more like an orbit so I started again.. time will tell if I speak the truth and not much at that.. perhaps we passed through a destroyed ancient solar system system and this and oumuanua were part of it.

[@thelastaustralian7583]

i saw a UFO in broad Daylight Years ago...i was convinced !

[@pauljonze]

Sir Patrick would be so proud of this, Chris, such an engaging and informative lecture that is perfectly paced. I'm old enough to remember your early appearances on The Sky at Night and it's wonderful to see the programme is safe in your hands

[@Djdc51]

Well said 👏

[@CragScrambler]

I remember his first appearance on TSAN and at first I wasn't too sure about him, I soon changed that opinion and think he's more than worthy of the honor of being Sir Patrick's successor.

[@smacksman1]

I'm so pleased I've lived long enough to experience the internet and, quite by random, come across a gem of a lecture like this. Thank you.

[@mossyslopes]

I agree, "a gem of a lecture" 👏

[@holoarcade]

and we have to sift through a lot of fake news to find these gems.

[@JMDinOKC]

This is the first interstellar visitor THAT WE'VE EVER OBSERVED. Five billion years is a long time.

[@MrAweeze]

Obviously, it happens all the time on a galactic time scale.

[@stpfs9281]

As Chris was saying near the end, they may be far more common, but we are bad at seeing them, as they are dark and moving fast.

[@JonnoPlays]

Humans have only been observing for a few hundred years though.

[@JMDinOKC]

@@JonnoPlays Exactly.

[@NondescriptMammal]

Yeah, you'd think a college science professor would bother to title their lecture accurately.

[@OldNickHindle]

Chris is such an engaging and entertaining speaker - a very enjoyable lecture.

[@bazsnell3178]

Chris Lintott took over 'The Sky at Night' TV program when Patrick Moore was too infirm to continue. He did a superlative job. He was just 'Dr' Lintott then, and he's progressed to very prestigious positions now as a full Professor.

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

Just to say this is my second watching of this lecture, I planned to just click the vid, click "like" and then do other things, but I just find so engaging.😊

[@kartafla]

ADD?

[@somik5177]

Dumb.

[@PhysioAl1]

Engaging indeed!!

[@Joemondaking]

😊

[@kingjsolomon]

I do That so often haha

[@EricTViking]

A great talk Chris - thanks! In recent years I have been really put off science by the self impressed showboating of many of the presenters. Your talk was interesting, fun, humble and dignified. Patrick would have been very proud to see it - you have restored some of the faith 👍

[@scottbrower9052]

Priceless. Great upload.

[@tinkeringinthailand8147]

Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed Chris's lecture.

[@greyjamiesod4989]

Thanks Chris, spoken in words I understand.

[@joeimbesi99]

Well done Chris ,very easy explanations

[@peterkerruish8136]

Thanks Chris, your podcast was very informative. Cheers M8.

[@waelisc]

loved every second!

[@masamune2984]

Great video, overall. Thank you for sharing.

[@JohnCarneyAu]

Great lecture. Thanks.

[@robertallan4916]

Thanks! Very enjoyable.

[@bradbird100]

Mind blowing and eases anxiety 🙏

[@alastairs3727]

Thanks Chris fascinating talk !

[@bluegruntfuttock]

Absolutely love these deep Dives. As a suggestion, would be great to see maybe other specialists that work there being involved in the deep dive. Maybe discussing their specialist field? Maybe something that's relevant that's happening to the weather at the time?

[@MrTorleon]

A compellingly brilliant presentation, intelligent, thought provoking and top shelf as are most of the Gresham College lectures. What an enjoyable event to watch and listen to - thank you :)

[@Namaerica]

What’s fabulous lecture. So exciting. Thank you.

[@EASYTIGER10]

That artists impression of Oumuamua 29:24 always reminded me of a baguette. I even wondered if it was ham and cheese or maybe tuna salad.

[@peterhall6656]

Excellent talk - especially the bit about jumping from boulder sized things to skyscraper sized things.

[@user-sj2hi5fn4m]

Our first? [Annunaki have left the Chat.]

[@GreshamCollege]

Chris Lintott will be doing an episode of our podcast 'Any Further Questions?' to answer all the questions we didn't have time to get to after this lecture. Please post your questions to him in the comments section and they may appear on the podcast!

[@juliantanzer6208]

Is it possible to attend such lectures if one is just purely interested in learning about such topics? (I am London based)

[@GreshamCollege]

Yes it is. Please do visit our website for details on how to book tickets - www.gresham.ac.uk

[@arthurfarrow]

If it had been a spaceship, would it not have maximised its efficiency by firing its engines at perihelion?

[@zapfanzapfan]

Yeah, but I think Avi is thinking of solar sails and that would still be accelerating the craft when observing it at some distance from the sun.

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

Occam's Razor: it was an asteroid.

[@jdlflagstone6980]

Within range of earth's sensors?? No way! Lol

[@simonmasters3295]

Encountering an alien spacecraft would be a black swan event - we would be forced ​to admit Occam is inadequate to reason correctly? @@gdutfulkbhh7537

[@MrAweeze]

​@gdutfulkbhh7537 seeing how one must assume the theory of rogue planetecimals to be true coupled with atypical shape and movement, I'm not entirely sure Occams Razor supports this 100%. However, it being a rouge asteroid is a slightly more simple possibility, so you're correct at face value.

[@WildBillCox13]

Liked and shared.

[@davemack7577]

Patrick Moore's chosen successor!

[@michaelcampbell-fq1qf]

veryverygoodchris

[@simongleaden2864]

What an amazing lecturer Chris Lintott is! I've been watching him on The Sky at Night for many years and have always been impressed by his ability to explain astronomy in simple terms the average layman can understand.

[@benthejrporter]

Interesting stuff, but can I recommend you invite Prof. Avi Loeb to give a lecture on this subject?

[@modestogonzalez182]

Excellent lecture. One question I have is why was the Hubble telescope not tasked with looking at omuamua? It would've been a much better resolution probably than a dot lol. The Hubble took a picture of the interstellar comet after all.

[@Redmenace96]

Around 45 min, he discusses binary planet/asteroid formation and doesn't mention binary star formation? Great presentation! Thank you, Gresham College.

[@fredneecher1746]

Also why have we not seen 3-lump objects? Maybe we will soon.

[@JungleJargon]

Can I suggest that the speed of light isn’t constant considering that the values to measure the speed which are time and distance are not constant across large distances? The earth is flat locally the same as the speed of light is constant locally. Over large distances the earth is not flat and the speed of light is not constant. Light only slows down where and when it encounters the gravity of a galaxy which slows down time and shortens distance the same as we observe it locally on earth.

[@japhfo]

You had me at "The earth is flat..."

[@JungleJargon]

@@japhfo Yeah and they seem to think the universe is flat too. It is overall but not for each individual galaxy.

[@zz-nc5kx]

Still, you’re not going to get to the speed of light much less exceed it.

[@JungleJargon]

@@zz-nc5kx The speed of light is never exceeded. It’s that time and distance change. This makes light arrive faster.

[@sodaaccount]

4:30 " We want to get to know it before it potentially penetrates us" xD

[@fxbootstraps]

What about the ice gluing the boulders together - ice is stronger than concrete if solids are added (pykrete is an example)

[@KarldorisLambley]

i haven't watched this yet. i am intriguds by the "first interstellar visitor" claim. what about all the heavier elements that i am composed of? from where did they come then?

[@fredneecher1746]

Exploding stars. But that was before the solar system formed.

[@greentruck8383]

Pluto is a planet to me.

[@GenUineUFOs6833]

Oumuamua may or may not have been an alien probe/craft. What I do know for a fact is, there was an elongated and illuminated craft in the direction of the Hercules constellation on 27.05.19 at 1.20am. It appeared to be stationary and looked like any other star until I zoomed in. (Caught on video) How many more of these craft are out there watching us?

[@RichardOates77]

Surely as Oumuamua left the sun it would have slowed a little owing to the suns gravitational pull. Would jets coming off it be enough to overcome this? Alternatively, perhaps a ‘burn’ was required to maintain its speed.

[@chrislintott1]

Yes, that’s right. Essentially it didn’t slow as much as expected

[@whippet611]

Wonderfully informative

[@QuirkVoyages]

I love the britishy accent of the speaker

[@roye2479]

who was the rocket scientist that made the subtitles obscure 1/3 the screen?

[@singingspread979]

If it's composition is like a sand castle, surely it will just burn uo as it comes in?

[@gorandoreski]

They should have called it "Rama" by Arthur Clarke's books.

[@MyKharli]

Rama 2 , 1 already been introducing a brain numbing virus to prevent future threats , hence catastrophic climate change posts 1k views , cats meowing to reggae 4m views .

[@nicholasmacnaughtan4492]

BOB (Ball Of Bit's)

[@fredneecher1746]

Interesting, but no new information about Oumuamua. He built a pretty flimsy planet-forming hypothesis out of a tiny piece of rock we couldn't even see the shape of. Just a reminder: the Oort Cloud is still just a hypothesis. There are still so many prior assumptions baked into this. Fun lecture, though.

[@ashmilliard6889]

Very interesting lecture- but you really need to proof read the subtitles before posting- so many mistakes it gets quite distracting.

[@henryploch7753]

If the structure is tumbling the variation of the light signature would have to repeat correct

[@ngc-fo5te]

Not necessarily. Several objects are known with chaotic rotation.

[@chrislintott1]

@@ngc-fo5te Likely over a long time, but we only have a few weeks of data.

[@clinteranovic8075]

Don't objects speed up when they come close to a planet or the sun which is how they boost the velocity of spacecraft?

[@chrisoseko]

Visitors visit, it just flew past. If there were beings onboard they totally snubbed us.

[@PradyumnaGarnayak-vx8zl]

Before ancient method of out space looking, ancient history scientist

[@petersq5532]

44:23> kulper belt reservoir of faild constructions... HS2 will end up there soon as well I presume

[@fredneecher1746]

There's a supermarket trolley already up there.

[@lgreen2475]

What an abilty that is. To be able to land on a far earth meteor, billions of years old and so far travelled and then get a sample and return it to earth. Its only a generation ago when this would not have been possible.

[@taunteratwill1787]

In our utter desperation we now call rocks "visitors" ! 😂

[@stpfs9281]

It started with "Pet" rocks!

[@fredneecher1746]

Scientists can't suppress their wish that it really is aliens.

[@RonTodd-gb1eo]

Could Oumuamua be a binary object? A darker and a lighter coloured object rotating around each other.

[@Redmenace96]

If it were binary, its path would be much more irregular passing so close to the gravity pull of the Sun. Unless it were rotating very, very fast? It models as a point mass.

[@equaliser2265]

Why the Heart on the laptop Sir?

[@martinaakervik]

Why is the Borisov image so different from the Oumuamua. If Borisov also travel fast shouldn’t the galaxy be a stretch image?

[@chrislintott1]

It's a very different beast - it had plenty of ice, which sublimed (turned into gas) when near the Sun, producing an atmosphere (or coma) and tail, so it looks much like a normal comet. It was also larger, so appears as more than a dot. It's not moving fast enough for the galaxy to blur over the course of what I think was a total exposure of an hour or so.

[@martinaakervik]

@@chrislintott1 ok. So different exposure time then? But to be honest that galaxy in the "background" seems very weird to get as sharp as the object you want to focus on when the distance is that big. The two photos is like too completely different pictures.

[@chrislintott1]

Ah, I understand the question. From a camera’s perspective, everything in space is at infinity, so you can focus on things at wildly different distance at the same time.

[@rogerphelps9939]

Yes but if the foreground object is moving across the field of view, a long exposure will show it blurred if the background galaxy is sharp. If the object is mostly moving directly away from the camer, which it probably was, the amount of blurring will be small.@@chrislintott1

[@rogerpartner2648]

It’s the way you tell them !! His jokes sort of fell flat. But following in the footsteps of MOORE . That’s true

[@chrislintott1]

The jokes are for me.

[@passatboi]

I always thought it was pronounced more like (/ˈkaɪpər/) (rhymes more with wiper or viper than "koi-per")

[@JonnoPlays]

We have many size moons in our galaxy so why don't we see Dwarf Moons? 🤔

[@ngc-fo5te]

Huh?

[@kelvin.008]

Who can't see that it is just a huge piece of space rock?😊

[@oceanwanderer8065]

"A BUNCH" of scientists!----surely you mean a GROUP Chris Lintott, or do you mean a bunch of flowers?

[@Rentokilolexusaicuxg]

Completely! Listening to him is like I Am Kat is the Kingfisher!

[@leevester6924]

Don't the Centauri stars have their Oort clouds?

[@ngc-fo5te]

Probably.

[@MagnetOnlyMotors]

Why do they think any thing flying around in space is 4.5 billion years old? Maybe it accreted a million years ago .

[@JMDinOKC]

Any native object flying around in our solar system is 4.5 billion years old. Statistically speaking, anything coming from outside our solar system is much older. It COULD be only a million years old, but the LIKELIHOOD of that is so close to zero it's not even measurable.

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

From here

[@danielmartini3229]

came back with material on the utside of the capsule? not much of a quarantine

[@sailingmrnice]

Looks like a volcanic ejection from a low gravity body.

[@glennschadow-gw7qc]

Is the asteroid belt interstellar space ,,, g ya learn something new everyday !!!!!

[@sandyago4735]

Well. First one you know of

[@Sameoldfitup]

I was alone again in the unquiet darkness

[@leevester6924]

Looks like the Millennium Falcon.

[@climatixseuche]

Pluto is a planet no matter what you say ...

[@jgordi418]

I LOVE THIS, WOULD YOU CARVE A CAVE,,,,JA JA

[@rayagoldendropofsun397]

Can someone explain how an object could simply leave our Solar System for another ?

[@jdlflagstone6980]

Propulsion

[@rayagoldendropofsun397]

That's amazing ! Is propulsion a Gravity MOTION ?

[@rayagoldendropofsun397]

@@jdlflagstone6980 First, we live in Occupied Space, meaning the Photon Energy's of our Solar System that's Enabling MOTION throughout, as it dwindles into Empty Space where there's no Energy to power objects in MOTION, so they turn around to connect with the next strongest Energy signal in it's vicinity, going back home to it origins

[@woopteedeewoopteedye]

Collisions.

[@stpfs9281]

Incoming speed was enough to keep it going?

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

Sirio with wharf

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

That is not true You cannot get out What about the rings That also protect earth

[@user-jb4vl2nn4h]

Thing are on Benu

[@teashdrinks714]

I wanna write a book while I take mushrooms I can come up with something like this

[@effenbeezeetravel4474]

I hope that space -junk from the space-aliens drifts by our planet some day and humans can learn from it and make us all more decent one day !✴✴✴✴✴

[@PradyumnaGarnayak-vx8zl]

I just listened NASA time last 12 yea

[@leevester6924]

Wilhelm Scream re Pluto's demotion.

[@RATLEEA10]

The first interstellar visitor? i am as worried by that statement as i am by the comments.

[@clydefergusson9703]

Not the first and not the last

[@craigwillis1624]

what if planet earth & REST OFF THE SOLOR SYTEM ARE IN black whole what would it be like on the out side of the black whole before we fell in the black whole would it be day light most the time planets on the our side could of sent the probe in to find out iff we planet earth is still alive trying to contack us ?.... tack us

[@markg.7865]

From what I know, it's not a artificial visitor or made from some alien intelligent life.

[@plopdoo339]

and what do you know? He clearly already said the US AIRFORCE edits the data from the images before the scientists get to analyze the data...

[@woopteedeewoopteedye]

Yup. People love to choose the least possible explanation and leave out facts. It sells books, conference tickets, youtube monetization, tv soecials etc. The carousel of UFO presenters are making a fortune the last few years.

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

We see they didnt get out Otherwise they would know these things

[@sobertillnoon]

"sword" of Orion. Sure. Sword.

[@alpheuswoodley8435]

This lecture was brought to you by the letters N, S, and A

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

I say we see a film of Chris Lintott surfing on Oumuamua

[@IMTHEBIGGESTCUNT]

First known or recorded interstellar object. Probably been loads of them?

[@nmarks]

Bruce Willis retired from acting in March 2022 after being diagnosed with aphasia.

[@prmath]

Think about This‼️ What would humans do if an unknown spacecraft landed in the desert out west and a rover started moving around Planet Earth. ?🤷🏻‍♂️? OUR PLANET ‼️

[@karenholmes2764]

Like many people, I also have a theory about Oumuamua. I know it is not aliens because aliens travel between stars inter-dimensionally. They basically teleport from one star to the other. They are visible within the atmosphere, but not out in space. If Oumuamua's trajectory changed when it came through the solar system, logically it could have passed through other systems before it arrived here and so it would be impossible to determine where it came from. To possibly differentiate Oumuamua from the Comet Borisov, would an object from a simple collision of objects from within a solar system Oort cloud, assuming it is the same material, have the energy to carry it beyond solar system? Both could accelerate the object it is is icy. Chris said it would have required a violent start. The idea of two objects sticking together but when they reach a certain size, they turn into rubble. What about planet size objects? What if that violent start was a star or a planet being dragged into a black hole, which not only drags objects into it because of the gravity waves but also ejects matter?

[@robhavock9434]

It was probably a chunk of rock.

[@user-sj2hi5fn4m]

Weren't we ... y'know ... created by Aliens 445,000 years ago? Isn't that what it says ... I dunno .. everywhere in the Sumerian texts and ... y'know like drawn all over our ancient megalithic sites? 'Osiris' was Enki. He created us.

[@stpfs9281]

0:10 First spelling mistake, this doesn't bode well. No Like, no subscribe. 22:42 The image "b", from CFHT, the large dot is "Oumuamua", but what are the multiple neighbours also moving, at the same speed with it? I see five "below" and two, possibly three "above". Those would be lines, if they were not moving "alongside". Trajectory shows location when discovered, 19th October 2017, a shame the capital letter "i", for Interstellar, looks like a number "1", confusing on a small screen. "A few other objects", "Borisov (C/2019 Q4)", "C" for Comet? But an unusual "high" trajectory. Edit: 2i Borisov, OK, thanks. 27:00 Changes in brightness. 31:35 Accelleration? Out gassing, but not visible, Hydrogen ice? Edit: Oh, sorry.

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

Maybe you saw something with a telescope

[@annaspano3747]

"Let's come up with the most clunky, difficult to spell and pronounce name possible for it."

[@veronicalogotheti1162]

A planet is done by an explosion Caos