Scientists Propose Mission to Catch Up With Mysterious Interstellar Object

Four years after it was first detected, some are itching to get a closer look at the object.

They argue that getting a closer look could change the way we understand the universe.

A team of researchers from the UK-based nonprofit Initiative for Interstellar Studies is proposing to send a spaceship around the Earth twice, then Venus and finally Jupiter to catch up with an unusual rock. The goal is to rendezvous with Oumuamua around 26 years later in space, but also with an immense potential scientific payoff.

The project is called Project Lyra.

There are a number of different hypotheses as to what the 650-foot object is made of.

Theories to explain the nature of 1I/Oumuamua have included a dust aggregate, a hydrogen iceberg, an alien solar sail, and fragments of a tidally disrupted planet.

We won't know for sure until we see the object for ourselves.

The time is now to plan, as rocks like 'Oumuamua' don't come to visit very often.

The software for the project was developed by Adam Hibberd, who told the magazine in 2020 that the mission is doable. The return of scientific research could change our understanding of the universe.

NASA to ’Oumuamua? The new 22 year mission is to create an alien solar sail.

A Harvard professor says alien spacecraft may have dropped sensors.

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