美國哈佛大學的天文學家認為，去年飛經地球的細長形神秘天體奧陌陌（Oumuamua）可能是外星人乘坐的宇宙飛船。

奧陌陌在夏威夷語中的意思是“首次到來的遠方信使”。2017年10月，位于夏威夷的泛星巡天望遠鏡率先發現了這個天外來客。其通體深紅，長約400米，形似雪茄。奧陌陌在途經太陽系時突然加速，其獨特的速度和飛行軌跡令科學家們感到困惑不解。

兩位哈佛大學的天文學家認為，從奧陌陌的形狀來看，它可能是一個“探測器，完全由某種外星文明操控，被故意送到地球附近。”

施姆爾·比亞利和亞伯拉罕·洛布是哈佛-史密森尼天體物理中心的天文學家，他們在新近合著的論文中猜測，奧陌陌可能是“一片光帆，是非自然的產物。”

這兩位科學家并沒有斷言奧陌陌絕對是外星人的造物（他們在論文中承認，這種情形是“外來的”）。不過，兩人判斷，它的形狀應該是來自太陽系以外的地區。

去年，科學家們將奧陌陌稱作“星際天體”，認定它既不是小行星也不是彗星。雖然彗星在所謂“放氣”的過程中也會加速飛行，但奧陌陌的形狀缺少彗星在熔解期間四周環繞的大團塵埃。

據美國全國廣播公司（NBC）旗下新聞部門報道，哈佛大學的研究文章將發表在11月12日刊發的《天體物理期刊通訊》（The Astrophysical Journal Letters）上。但它的論斷并未讓所有人信服。

多倫多大學士嘉堡校區行星科學研究中心的研究員亞倫·杰克遜向美國有線電視新聞網（CNN）表示：“我完全不相信，老實說，我覺得這項研究有很大的瑕疵。（美國天文學家）卡爾·薩根說過：‘超凡脫俗的論點需要超乎尋常的證據。’這份報告的證據嚴重不足，更不要提超乎尋常的證據了。”（財富中文網）

譯者：Pessy

審校：夏林

The mysterious, elongated object named Oumuamua that hurtled past Earth last year could have been an alien spacecraft, according to astronomers from Harvard University.

Oumuamua—or “messenger from afar arriving first” in Hawaiian—was first discovered in October 2017 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. The shape was dark red, roughly oval, and flat, estimated to be a quarter-mile long. Oumuamua baffled scientists last year due to its unique speed and trajectory: as it passed through our solar system, Oumuamua accelerated.

According to two Harvard astronomers, the shape could have been a “fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.”

In their new paper, Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggest Oumamua could have been “a lightsail of artificial origin.”

The scientists are not claiming with certainty that Oumamua was definitely of alien origin (they admit in their paper that scenario is “exotic”), but the shape was determined to have come from outside our solar system.

Oumuamua was dubbed an “interstellar object” when scientists decided it was neither an asteroid or a comet; while comets can speed up in a process known as “outgassing,” the shape lacked the cloud of dust that surrounds a melting comet.

The Harvard paper will be published Nov. 12 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, NBC News reports. Not everyone, however, is convinced of its argument.

“I am distinctly unconvinced and honestly think the study is rather flawed,” Alan Jackson, fellow at the Centre for Planetary Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough, told CNN. “Carl Sagan once said, ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’ and this paper is distinctly lacking in evidence, nevermind extraordinary evidence.”