Seven years later, what can we make of our first confirmed interstellar visitor?

Name: Seven years later, what can we make of our first confirmed interstellar visitor? | Aeon Videos
Uploaded: 2024-02-29
Duration: 59 min
Description: It wasn’t aliens, but the first interstellar object found in our solar system still has much to teach us about the cosmos

In 2017, astronomers identified the first known interstellar object to have entered our solar system, now commonly known as ʻOumuamua. A relatively small body, estimated to be roughly the size of a skyscraper, ʻOumuamua transfixed scientists with its peculiar properties and inspired endless ‘it must be aliens’ takes from a fascinated public – and at least one Harvard astrophysicist. In this entertaining lecture from January 2024, Chris Lintott, professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford and professor of astronomy at Gresham College in London, makes the case that, while this object’s fleeting presence in our solar system wasn’t coordinated by extraterrestrial life, it still has much to teach us about the nature of the Universe.

Video by Gresham College

29 February 2024

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