Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

INTERSTELLAR OBJECTS

The ‘Oumuamua controversy

That the interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) could be an extraterrestrial artefact is an unorthodox hypothesis. From a philosophical perspective, however, the structure of the underlying argument for the hypothesis is flawed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Bialy, S. & Loeb, A. Astrophys. J. Lett. 868, L1 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Loeb, A. Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth (John Murray, 2021).

  3. Micheli, M. et al. Nature 559, 223–226 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Do, A., Tucker, M. A. & Tonry, J. Astrophys. J. Lett. 855, L10 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Mashchenko, S. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 489, 3003–3021 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Stanford, P. K. Exceeding Our Grasp: Science, History and the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives (Oxford Univ. Press, 2006).

  7. The ‘Oumuamua ISSI Team Nat. Astron. 3, 594–602 (2019).

  8. Seligman, D., Laughlin, G. & Batygin, K. Astrophys. J. Lett. 876, L26 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Sandberg, A., Drexler, E. & Ord, T. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.02404 (2018).

  10. Lingam, M. & Loeb, A. Astrobiology 19, 28–39 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank A. Loeb, P. Vickers, T. Ord and S. McMahon for helpful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher Cowie.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cowie, C. The ‘Oumuamua controversy. Nat Astron 5, 526–527 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01387-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01387-z

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing