When a strange alien object is discovered speeding through our Solar System, experts race to uncover if it is real evidence of extraterrestrial contact or a deadly asteroid on a collision course with Earth.
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LearningTranscript
00:01A mysterious object the size and shape of a skyscraper hurtling through the
00:07solar system at over 100,000 miles per hour fast enough to level a city if it
00:15hits the earth. As the data came in everybody's jaws begin to drop and you
00:19realize no this is something different this is something we've never seen before.
00:24This bizarre object comes from outside our solar system. It's our first
00:30interstellar visitor. Astronomers call it Oumuamua, the messenger from afar.
00:37Oumuamua is our galaxy coming to us. This is the first time in history we
00:43encountered something legit alien. Astronomers around the world scramble to
00:48unlock its deepest secrets. How did Oumuamua get here? Does it pose a threat
00:54to the earth? Could it even be an alien spaceship?
01:01Oumuamua was so strange, so different that everything was on the table. We had no
01:07idea what it was. This is the inside story of the race to solve the mystery of
01:14the alien asteroid.
01:28The summit of Mauna Kea. The giant volcano on Hawaii's Big Island. Home to some of the
01:37earth's most powerful telescopes. This is where astronomers keep watch on the night
01:43skies, looking for asteroids and comets that threaten the earth. Astronomer Rob
01:49Warrick is part of this vitally important search. At the end of my email
01:54signature, I just write Guardian of Earth. It's kind of a joke between my
01:57colleagues and me. My official title is planetary defense researcher, but we're
02:01basically looking to protect the planet from hazardous asteroids and comets.
02:06On October 19th, 2017, Rob spots a mysterious object streaking through space like a rogue missile.
02:17We actually had a new candidate detection. It was moving very fast. It appeared as a streak
02:22in the image. The object is moving so fast that it appears as a faint gray line. At this speed,
02:32it will hit the earth with more force than a nuclear bomb, powerful enough to destroy a city. Rob and
02:40the team set up camp at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope to plot the
02:45object's trajectory. The data they capture confirms that this object is heading
02:50away from our planet. The earth is safe for now, but the object's orbit is unlike
02:57anything Rob has seen before. Everything that belongs in our solar system travels in
03:05closed loops around the Sun. The Sun holds the planets in near circular orbits.
03:13Smaller bodies, like comets, move in vast elliptical orbits that take them to the edges of the solar system, before
03:21looping back towards the Sun.
03:24But Rob's data reveals that this mysterious object is different. Its orbit is open, not closed. This means that it
03:35must come from outside the solar system, from interstellar space. Its orbit is open, not closed.
03:41It's our first confirmed alien visitor. Astronomers named it Oumuamua, Hawaiian for messenger. It's an incredible discovery.
03:55And that's what really told us right then that this object came from outside the solar system.
04:01Oumuamua was like nothing we had ever seen before. Think about that. That's literally true. This was actually a completely
04:07alien object. And, you know, that day I kind of got shivers, right?
04:12But Oumuamua travels so fast that astronomers have just weeks to study it, before it disappears beyond the reach of
04:19Earth's telescopes.
04:22The best estimate we had, we would see it for about two or three weeks. So we had to get
04:26as much data as we could, as soon as we could, on as many telescopes as we could.
04:30It's now a race against time to learn as much about Oumuamua as possible. Astronomers start with the most important
04:39question. What is Oumuamua?
04:42The main candidates are two forms of space debris, routinely hurled out of developing solar systems.
04:48When our solar system first formed, we think that a huge number of comets and asteroids were ejected away by
04:56Jupiter, its gravity. This must have happened around other stars as well.
05:01In all likelihood, Oumuamua is an interstellar asteroid or a comet.
05:06Could Oumuamua be an asteroid or comet tossed into interstellar space during the birth of an alien solar system?
05:18Astronomer Meg Schwamb studies asteroids and comets in our solar system.
05:24She and her team race to observe the object, using the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii.
05:31Astronomers hope to get an idea of Oumuamua's shape and size, a vital clue as to what it is.
05:37It was exciting. I really wanted to know where it would fit in. Would it look like an asteroid? Would
05:41it look like a comet? Would it look completely different?
05:45There are no telescopes powerful enough to determine the size and shape directly.
05:50All they have to go on is the fact that Oumuamua's dimensions affect how much light it reflects back towards
05:57Earth.
05:59This is actually data from many, many telescopes from around the world, watching Oumuamua.
06:05So this is brightness over time. It gets brighter and fainter and brighter again.
06:11What could make the light from Oumuamua brighten and dim?
06:16Rob thinks it's because of the object's shape and the way it's moving.
06:21If you can imagine this shape here, you're looking on the longest edge. It has the greater surface area.
06:27This reflects more light. But when you look at the smaller end, it doesn't reflect as much light.
06:31Therefore, it's not going to appear as bright. So this is similar to Oumuamua, where we think it's a very
06:36elongated object.
06:37And as it's tumbling through space, the different size of the reflective surface gives you the variation of brightness you
06:44see.
06:47Astronomers use this difference in light to determine exactly how elongated and how big Oumuamua is.
06:54Based on the variation in the light curve of Oumuamua, we know that it's approximately a length to width ratio
06:59of six to one.
07:02Oumuamua is six times longer than it is wide. This makes it exceptionally tall and thin.
07:10It soars between 650 to 785 feet high. It's a skyscraper that could be as big as the Empire State
07:19Building, tumbling through our solar system.
07:22Determining Oumuamua's shape is a fantastic bit of detective work.
07:27But astronomers are no closer to saying whether the alien visitor is an asteroid or a comet.
07:34Because they've never seen anything with this shape before.
07:39Astronomers scrambled to explain what Oumuamua is.
07:43First up, could it be an asteroid?
07:47Investigators turned to lab experiments to try to solve this mystery.
07:52If it is a rocky asteroid, what kind of cosmic process could carve out such a long and thin shard
07:59of rock?
08:04Planetary scientist Peter Schultz has spent his career recreating violent collisions in space.
08:10He wants to know if an almighty collision can make a rocky splinter the size and shape of Oumuamua.
08:19Oumuamua is really interesting because we've never seen an asteroid that is shaped like a cigar.
08:25That's just strange. And so we have to figure out why.
08:29Could an epic collision create a similar asteroid?
08:32Or is there an even more incredible explanation behind Oumuamua's strange shape?
08:39Could this interstellar visitor be an alien spaceship?
09:00At the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range, planetary scientist Peter Schultz uses a giant hypervelocity gun to recreate some of
09:10the most violent collisions in the solar system.
09:13To understand the forces at work.
09:16Here we are at the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range.
09:19It allows us to fire projectiles at 22 times the speed of sound.
09:25Over the last 40 years, Peter's investigated everything from moon-shaping collisions
09:32to determining what type of impact killed the dinosaurs.
09:40Most of Peter's epic collisions create short and lumpy debris, shaped like most of the asteroids seen in our solar
09:48system.
09:50But drawing on his experience, Peter believes that one very specific type of collision might just generate something that looks
09:58long and thin like Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor to our solar system.
10:04Right now we are in the impact chamber.
10:07This is where we slam into things.
10:09This is our projectile, which represents an asteroid.
10:13And today we're going to be slamming into the cylinder.
10:16Now, imagine that this is a planet or another asteroid.
10:21It will be coming in and slamming in at an oblique angle.
10:25And we want to find out, does it break into millions of pieces?
10:29Or are there some bigger chunks that might end up looking like a cigar?
10:34Something like Oumuamua.
10:38Charges loaded.
10:39That's good to go.
10:40You're ready to bring the gun out.
10:42Peter believes that as the small body smashes into the larger object at an angle, the glancing blow could create
10:50something the shape of Oumuamua.
10:52But the shot has to be incredibly precise to work.
10:58Yeah, if we're off by one millimeter.
11:05Okay, we are arc in and reset.
11:08My voltage is on.
11:10Fire paddle's in.
11:11Here we go.
11:13Rolling.
11:17Whoa!
11:18There we go.
11:18Yep, we hit it.
11:19Okay.
11:20This went well.
11:22The projectile successfully slams into the cylinder at 22 times the speed of sound.
11:29But has the ferocious impact generated any fragments the shape of Oumuamua?
11:38Peter examines the high-speed footage.
11:42These are actual fragments of the projectile itself.
11:47These black shapes are pieces of the now shattered ball bearing.
11:52There's a fragment here that's elongated, a fragment here that's elongated.
11:56That's almost a five to one ratio.
11:58So this is a fragment that looks very much like Oumuamua.
12:03As it slams into the cylinder, the top half of the small ball shears off and breaks into long, thin
12:09shards.
12:10A similar shape to Oumuamua.
12:15We've basically shown here that it's possible to produce an elongate fragment from an impact between two bodies.
12:30These sorts of Oumuamua forming collisions are thought to happen in the violent conditions that exist when a solar system
12:37is born.
12:44As a solar system forms, a dense cloud of material swirls around a young star.
12:51Inside the cloud, asteroids collide, throwing out a barrage of rocky fragments.
13:00Some of them are long and thin, just like Oumuamua.
13:05But in the maelstrom of a young solar system, they don't last long.
13:12After multiple collisions, only a small fraction of the thin fragments survive.
13:19And even fewer escape into interstellar space.
13:24It's certainly possible that an asteroid the size and shape of Oumuamua can escape from a developing solar system.
13:33But these shards survive so rarely that astronomers can't say for sure if Oumuamua is an asteroid.
13:41With time running out, astronomers must investigate the other options.
13:47Oumuamua is getting fainter every single day, every single hour.
13:51So the race is on to collect as much information as we can before it fades forever into nothingness.
13:58As the alien visitor speeds away, is there any evidence that it could be an icy comet?
14:05Or perhaps an alien spaceship on a mission to explore other worlds?
14:28Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor to our solar system.
14:33Investigators are running out of time to figure out what this mysterious object is.
14:39They know that Oumuamua is shaped like a long, thin cigar.
14:43But is it a comet made from ice?
14:47There are good reasons why that might be the case.
14:53We think a lot more comets get thrown out, away from the star system entirely, than asteroids.
15:00Comets are a mix of rock and ice, like dirty snowballs.
15:04They form further out in solar systems.
15:08And this makes it easier for them to break free and head into interstellar space.
15:13But is it possible for a comet to be the shape of Oumuamua?
15:18There is no such thing as a typical comet.
15:21The ones that we've actually seen up close, they all look kind of different.
15:26Some comets stick together, creating rubber duck shapes.
15:32Others are rounded and fly alone.
15:35But nothing we've seen before has the skyscraper profile of Oumuamua.
15:41So how did it form?
15:44One potential solution lies far beyond the boundaries of our solar system.
15:50Out in interstellar space.
15:54Oumuamua, it has been out in the space between stars for millions, tens of millions of years.
16:00And so that's going to make it a little bit different than the objects in our solar system.
16:06It could have been that Oumuamua looked very different at the beginning of its journey to when it passed by
16:10the Earth.
16:12If Oumuamua really is an icy comet, the ravages of interstellar space could have dramatically altered its shape.
16:23Oumuamua may have started life as a lumpy comet.
16:27On its long journey, it encounters pockets of dust and tiny abrasive micrometeoroids.
16:37As they strike the comet's surface, they sandblast away the ice and rock.
16:44And over millions of years, whittle away the lumps and bumps.
16:49The comet gets thinner and thinner.
16:53Until eventually, it looks like a skyscraper.
17:03It may be possible for a comet to be the same shape as Oumuamua.
17:08But is there any hard evidence in the observations that confirms if it is a comet?
17:14So the first thought is that if it was icy and coming in, it would start behaving exactly like a
17:18comet.
17:19And then once it got close enough, we would start seeing it shed its layers.
17:22And that we might see a tail coming from it, just like we do when we see a comet coming
17:27in from our distant solar system.
17:29As comets come close to the heat of a star, like the sun, the ices on them flash into gas.
17:38This creates an extended cloud of gas and dust, a coma and tail.
17:47The same should happen to Oumuamua if it's a comet.
17:51What we expected to see was that we would see a coma.
17:54This is an image from the Very Large Telescope.
17:57And so the dot there is Oumuamua, and it's just a dot.
18:01It looks very much like a point source, no fuzziness at all.
18:04So we didn't see any of the coma we were expecting.
18:06So it wasn't a comet.
18:11Oumuamua is the first object to be classified as a comet and then declassified to not be a comet.
18:17So what is Oumuamua?
18:21Many thought it must be a comet.
18:26But then why does it not have a tail?
18:30And it's unlikely to be a rocky asteroid because we so rarely see one shaped like a skyscraper.
18:37With question marks hanging over the two most likely explanations, some begin to consider an extraordinary third alternative.
18:45Is Oumuamua so long and thin because it's actually an alien spaceship?
18:52On a mission to explore other worlds?
18:58This may sound like an astonishing idea, but there is other evidence that supports this theory.
19:05One thing that was really suspicious about Oumuamua was its trajectory.
19:09And this is kind of what gave a little bit of credence to the notion that it was some kind
19:12of alien visitation.
19:16Oumuamua's trajectory sends it flashing between the orbits of Mars and Earth.
19:21Astronomers call this the habitable zone.
19:25The one place in our solar system where Oumuamua could encounter intelligent life.
19:32So, is Oumuamua a spaceship sent here to communicate with us?
19:40Seth Shostak is part of SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
19:46If Oumuamua is an alien spacecraft, it could be broadcasting some sort of radio signal.
19:54Seth's plan is to listen in before this visitor vanishes from the solar system.
20:00Communication is something that all spacecraft have to do.
20:03They have to communicate back to the mother ship or the mother planet or somebody else.
20:09So, if they were doing that, then we could have detected some radio signals coming off this thing.
20:16If aliens are communicating out in space, it's a good bet they'll be using radio waves.
20:22This is the Allen Radio Telescope Array.
20:25It's designed to prove the existence of aliens by eavesdropping on their conversations.
20:34Radio waves essentially can go anywhere you want in the universe without any problem in terms of them being blocked
20:40by stuff.
20:41If there's any communication going on out there in the cosmos, radio is going to be part of that.
20:48Seth's work focuses on listening for communications coming from distant stars.
20:53But Oumuamua proves too good an opportunity to pass up.
20:58If there's only a 1% chance that it was a spacecraft, it's still worth pointing these antennas in that
21:04direction and checking it out.
21:08Seth works with fellow astronomer John Richards.
21:12Is Oumuamua broadcasting a signal?
21:17Unfortunately, nothing yet.
21:20There's no transmitter that's broadcasting as Oumuamua slides by us here in the solar system.
21:27So, you know, if that's really an alien spacecraft, they're in stealth mode, right?
21:33If Oumuamua is an alien spaceship, it's not broadcasting signals, yet.
21:40But Oumuamua is proving far more mysterious than anyone expected.
21:46We've seen a lot of really weird stuff in our solar system.
21:49But even with all of that, Oumuamua might be the weirdest.
21:54Two weeks after first spotting this strange interstellar visitor, investigators have one final chance to decode its identity.
22:05Astronomers around the world rush to try and capture one last clue.
22:10Oumuamua's color.
22:12Can this finally solve the mystery of what this object is?
22:18And can Oumuamua reveal anything about where it came from?
22:22And clues as to whether life exists in a distant alien solar system.
22:46Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor ever discovered, is racing towards the edge of the solar system at nearly 100,000
22:55miles per hour.
23:00It will soon be impossible for even the world's most powerful telescopes to observe it.
23:05Before it disappears for good, investigators have one last chance to probe its deepest secrets to confirm if it's an
23:13asteroid, a comet, or an alien spaceship.
23:23Meg Schwamm is part of the group racing to capture the alien visitor's color.
23:27This could provide a crucial clue to help identify what Oumuamua is.
23:34Everyone was sort of rushing to get as much data as we could before we couldn't get any more.
23:38I know for our group we observed in the last night that was actually possible. We got lucky.
23:45Is Oumuamua the color of an asteroid, a comet, or perhaps a color that only an advanced alien civilization could
23:53create?
23:55Combining multiple images from Gemini and other optical telescopes, incredibly, they capture Oumuamua's color.
24:04This is actually an optical, showing what Oumuamua would look like to our eyes.
24:09So you might notice the sort of reddish hue that Oumuamua has, and that's actually real.
24:15And so that actually tells us something about its composition, and we can use that to look at how it
24:19fits into the colors of objects in our own solar system.
24:24It's an astonishing breakthrough. Oumuamua's dark red color does match something scientists have seen before.
24:33The color of comets. Astronomers have observed many icy comets that have the same red color, thought to be a
24:41tar-like crust.
24:44It might mean that it's actually not just rock, but maybe ice involved as well with Oumuamua.
24:50This crucial evidence suggests that Oumuamua is an icy object.
24:56New data also reveals that Oumuamua has an unexpected speed boost as it passes by the sun.
25:03The sun's heat vaporizes small amounts of its ice, blasting it into space.
25:09These jets act like mini rocket boosters.
25:13Combined with the color, it's a slam dunk.
25:17Oumuamua is a comet, but it's unlike any comet we've seen before.
25:23Oumuamua is literally one of its kind. It's the only body in its own category.
25:30Why didn't Oumuamua form a full tail as it passed by the sun, as all other comets in our solar
25:36system do?
25:41Astrophysicist Perry Jerrokinis, from NASA's Cosmic Ice Laboratory, believes it could be down to the thickness of the comet's crust.
25:49He studies how these red crusts form.
25:53We're investigating the compounds that make up interstellar and planetary ices.
26:02And we're measuring the effects of radiation on those ices.
26:09Perry's convinced that radiation has a strange effect on the icy outer layers of a comet.
26:16He starts by making his own sample of comet ice.
26:21I've got a mirror here that I place in the vacuum chamber, and I'm cooling it to 20 degrees Kelvin,
26:29or minus 250 centigrade.
26:31I'm going to create an ice on top of it.
26:35Perry then releases water, carbon dioxide, and methane gases into the chamber.
26:42These are all commonly found in outer space.
26:46The gases freeze into ice on the surface of the super-cold mirror.
26:51We can peek inside the vacuum chamber, and in this case I've got quite a thick ice, so I can
26:59see the ice buildup on that mirror.
27:03It looks quite good.
27:04The silver mirror is now covered in a creamy layer of cometary ice.
27:10Perry wants to transform this ice into the red crust thought to encase Oumuamua.
27:17So he adds one last ingredient, radiation.
27:22The next part of this experiment is to turn on our source of radiation, and then expose the ice to
27:30that radiation.
27:33Radiation from stars blasts comets as they travel through space over millions and billions of years.
27:42Perry gives his sample an intense blast of radiation to mimic these conditions.
27:49We start exposing the ice to the radiation.
27:53We're going to leave it like this for about 30 minutes, which is the equivalent of about a million years
27:58in space.
28:00Under this intense flood of a million years worth of radiation, something extraordinary happens to the ice.
28:12Before we had sort of this creamy white sort of frost layer.
28:17Now it's this muddy brown color.
28:20So the radiation has changed it visibly.
28:25This dark red crust, made from radiation blasted ice, is what astronomers think covers many comets in our solar system.
28:33And Oumuamua.
28:37Can this crust explain why Oumuamua doesn't form a full tail?
28:44Perry believes that in Oumuamua's case, interstellar space supercharged the formation of its red crust.
28:55Oumuamua has spent 50 million years or so in interstellar space where it has not been protected by the sun's
29:03magnetic field.
29:05So it's been exposed to harsher radiation.
29:09Is interstellar radiation the final piece in the puzzle of the alien visitor?
29:17As Oumuamua passes through the interstellar void, cosmic rays pepper its surface.
29:27As they hit the comet, they transform the outer layers of ice into a crust of red sticky compounds.
29:38Over millions of years, this grows into a tough shell up to a foot and a half thick.
29:44This red crust protects the icy core from the heat of the stars and stops it from turning into gas.
29:54That's how Oumuamua could pass so close to the sun without forming a visible tail.
30:03And so for Oumuamua, this might mean that there is still an icy core.
30:06So it might not be so surprising that we didn't see anything because of that protective crust.
30:16Oumuamua finally passes beyond the reach of our telescopes.
30:19From the evidence gathered in those few short weeks, this is our best guess at the alien visitor's extraordinary story.
30:32Oumuamua begins life as an icy comet before being thrown out of its parent solar system and into interstellar space.
30:42Over millions of years, dust and micrometeorites whittle away at the surface until it's a strange thin skyscraper shape.
30:54Cosmic rays create a thick red crust that wraps around its icy core.
31:03And protects Oumuamua as it flashes past our sun before heading out once more towards interstellar space.
31:19Oumuamua is the first interstellar visitor we've ever spotted.
31:24But how many more are out there?
31:26And what are the chances of us seeing another?
31:47Astronomers believe our first interstellar visitor, Oumuamua, is far from alone.
31:54We think that interstellar material, such as interstellar asteroids, things that originated beyond our solar system, pass through our solar
32:02system all the time.
32:02We think that 10,000 of them are passing through at any given moment.
32:09The chaos of solar system formation across the galaxy throws out billions of asteroids and comets into interstellar space.
32:19Many find their way here.
32:23There is always something like this in our solar system. The problem is finding it.
32:29For many years, astronomers thought these would be too difficult to spot.
32:34Until Oumuamua flashed by our planet.
32:38We really should be looking for more of them and there should be more of them out there.
32:43So how long will we have to wait until we detect the next interstellar visitor?
32:50Astronomers believe that huge numbers of these alien objects pass through our solar system.
32:56Spotting them is simply a case of constantly monitoring a large enough area of the sky.
33:03We also know bigger telescopes are coming, like the large Synoptic Sky Survey Telescope that's being currently built in Chile.
33:09So they're going to find one of these a year, hopefully, or more.
33:13And so then we start understanding whether Oumuamua is really strange or not.
33:18What can Oumuamua, and other interstellar objects, tell us about the distant and mysterious alien solar systems that they come
33:26from?
33:28Now with Oumuamua, the possibility has arisen that we can sample other star systems as well.
33:34Not just our own planets, but something from a distant star.
33:38How similar is it to us? How different is it?
33:40Oumuamua may be small, but the scientific ramifications could be vast.
33:48Oumuamua is an extraordinary opportunity to test our theories about how planets and solar systems form across the cosmos.
33:56Maybe the same processes are ubiquitous or everywhere in round stars, or maybe it can be very different.
34:03With its strange shape, Oumuamua at first seems shockingly alien.
34:08But it's not as different as first thought.
34:12Its red color matches many of the icy objects seen in our solar system.
34:19I would have not been able to tell you that this object or this image is from an object from
34:24another solar system passing by.
34:25I would have told you it's something from our own solar system.
34:28These similarities mean that Oumuamua's home solar system may not be so very different from our own.
34:34And that's vitally important for astronomers' theories about how solar systems and planets form throughout the universe.
34:44It's phenomenally exciting because what it means is the processes that are happening in our own solar system,
34:49that we have a pretty good understanding of, are happening outside of our solar system as well.
34:53Many unsolved mysteries surround Oumuamua.
35:00One remains the biggest question of all.
35:04Can Oumuamua reveal any possible similarities between life on Earth and any alien life that may exist in the universe?
35:12Perry Jarekinis thinks it can.
35:16He's finding the signature of surprising chemicals hidden inside the red crust thought to encase Oumuamua.
35:24So we come over here and we can see a spectrum.
35:29These large peaks reveal the presence of water, hardly surprising for something that started as ice.
35:36But Perry also discovers something far more complex and unexpected.
35:43And you can see little bumps that indicate the presence of another organic molecule that's important for life.
35:53These organic molecules are some of the basic building blocks of DNA, the blueprint of life.
36:01Objects like Oumuamua may have even delivered the ingredients of life to the young Earth.
36:11So this gives us some clue about the origins of life.
36:13You and I are based on compounds that are common in comets and meteorites and things like Oumuamua.
36:20That's not a coincidence.
36:21That's what lands here.
36:22We are common as muck.
36:27If Oumuamua does have the same molecules in its red crust, then the implications are extraordinary.
36:35Red-stained objects just like it may be spreading the same building blocks for life across the universe.
36:43Oumuamua tells us that maybe material is being shared from one solar system to another.
36:50And the fact that Oumuamua is covered with organics, this brings up the idea that the seeds for life,
36:55or maybe even life itself, can spread from one star system to another.
37:00When comets land here on Earth, they bring a rich treasure trove of organic molecules.
37:05They bring them here to Earth where life can evolve.
37:07And some of those molecules that actually were baked on the surface of a distant comet around another solar system
37:13are probably in your body right now.
37:16It's an astonishing idea.
37:18But to know for sure, astronomers would need to fly to an interstellar visitor like Oumuamua and get a sample
37:25from the surface.
37:28Oumuamua is now too remote to reach.
37:31But could we visit and sample the next interstellar object?
37:36One scientist is working on a way to do just that.
37:59On October 19th, 2017, an object appears as a flash of light in our solar system.
38:07Oumuamua is the first interstellar object ever discovered.
38:12Scientists believe huge numbers of similar objects are out there.
38:17But when will we detect the next one?
38:20And when we do, will it be possible to visit it and collect a sample?
38:26If another interstellar object like this were to come through, what an amazing dream come true it would be to
38:34actually go to that object, pick up some rocks from the surface and bring them back, analyze them in our
38:40laboratories.
38:41Boy, would it be cool.
38:43The idea of capturing a sample of an alien comet like Oumuamua may sound like science fiction.
38:49But Jason Dworkin's team at NASA's Astrobiology Lab is pioneering technology that could help us do just that.
38:59They're sending a spaceship to grab a chunk of an object that already belongs to our solar system.
39:05When we get our sample, then we take it to this laboratory.
39:08And this is where we can do the crushing, extraction work that's necessary to figure out what's inside.
39:16The bold idea is to fly to the asteroid Bennu, a rounded lump of rock nearly 1,650 feet that
39:24orbits between Venus and Mars, and then grab a sample.
39:28The spacecraft has a three-meter-long pogo stick that will touch the surface of asteroid Bennu for as long
39:34as five seconds,
39:35bringing back two kilograms of the surface of Bennu to study what this ancient asteroid tells us about the origin
39:43of the solar system and maybe the origin of life.
39:45Could scientists use similar technology to sample an alien comet?
39:51Collecting a sample from Oumuamua is the next best thing to going to another solar system and getting a sample
39:57back.
39:57We can learn about the universalities of life or the idiosyncrasies of life here versus elsewhere.
40:07The biggest challenge to capturing an alien sample is the time needed for the mission to get off the ground.
40:13We have the rocket ready, have the spacecraft ready, have everything tested and working perfectly.
40:19It would take a long time. It would take several years to get ready.
40:22And Oumuamua came in quickly and left quickly.
40:25So by the time we're ready, it would be gone.
40:30Oumuamua's path brought it looping in behind the Sun.
40:33This blinds astronomers on Earth to its approach.
40:37Scientists only detect it when it's already on its way out of the solar system.
40:44But with the expanding network of telescopes keeping watch on the sky, next time we should have more warning.
40:51The longer you have before you know to see it, the better you can prepare, the more time you have
40:57to get something ready to intercept it and get a sample and study it.
41:02Perhaps with a spaceship ready on standby, we can snatch our first sample of an alien visitor the next time
41:08one comes calling.
41:15Oumuamua, our first alien visitor, is now heading back towards interstellar space.
41:22It's been an incredible journey, both for Oumuamua and the astronomers chasing it.
41:28All of Oumuamua is interesting and sort of different because it's the first of its kind.
41:32And so I think to really understand how it fits in, we need to find more of them.
41:36And the nice thing is we will.
41:39The Oumuamua has been traveling toward us for many tens of millions of years, back before there were humans on
41:45Earth.
41:45And now it's going on and it's going to travel for billions of years more.
41:49It's mind-blowing.
41:53Oumuamua was one of these moments in my career as a scientist where something got even better than I had
41:58imagined.
41:59As the evidence mounted became more and more bizarre, more and more alien.
42:03That doesn't happen very often and I will never forget Oumuamua.
42:12Now, astronomers prepare for the next interstellar arrival.
42:18And hope it will be as surprising, as mysterious, and as revolutionary as Oumuamua, the messenger from afar.
42:28Oumuamua was one of those stars.
42:28The same.
42:31The last reign.
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