It’s About to Get Weird (Awesome)

Space. “The final frontier.” I’m just going to say it: I love space. And with recent happenings on our own little rock we call Earth, it’s really the only hopeful and exciting topic I can think to ramble geekily about—so, sit tight.
It seems to me that the notion that other life—alien civilizations—existing outside of humanity, beyond Earth, beyond our solar system, and even beyond the Milky Way Galaxy, is still a concept that many view as a sci-fi fantasy. Not possible, illogical. However it is actually quite the opposite. Space is infinite. We have yet to venture very far within our own solar system, let alone beyond. When you consider that, so far, over 500 star/stellar systems have been detected within the Milky Way, and that the Milky Way is just one of hundreds of thousands of millions of galaxies throughout the phenomenal void that is space . . . It is virtually impossible that we are the only intelligent civilization in existence throughout “infinity and beyond.”
That being said, we are certainly the only intelligent civilization within our solar system (there may be amoeba lurking somewhere within other water bearing planets) and the possibility that those of us living now will be around to witness that first encounter with other civilizations is very, very low. But they exist. Somewhere out there. And that’s kind of exciting and inspiring, isn’t it? However, we may not be as far off from learning about life outside of as previously thought.
Recently, a Harvard paper hypothesized that an interstellar object, originally thought to be an asteroid, could potentially be an alien probe. The argument against the object being an asteroid, consisted of observations such as the cigar-like shape and the unusual speed/acceleration at which the object moves, among other points. The object was named Oumuamua, which roughly translates to “messenger” in Hawaiian and was discovered first back in 2017. The news may not be current, but it is intriguing. There are, of course, skeptics to this theory, as it is hard to determine without direct observation, but regardless of its true nature, Oumuamua is an abnormal interstellar object worth studying and speculating about.
And, for nerds like me, it sparks fantastical imaginings and hopeful possibilities for the future of humanity and Earth, should they survive to experience any extraterrestrial encounters—big or small.
For those interested, I highly recommend reading the original paper or official observations from NASA(.gov) discussing the abnormalities of Oumuamua, or articles discussing the paper, on CNN or USA Today.

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