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kleinbl00  ·  151 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: June 5, 2024

So I've seen the math on what an 'Oumuamua flyby looks like. It's gnarly. I wholeheartedly invite you to run shit down yourself but when I glimpsed it here's the following:

Rate of closure: 17km/s

Target size: 0.1km

New horizon's LORRI imager had an angular resolution of 5 microrad/pixel or around 1 arcsec. If you were able to build a 1 gigapixel camera, which clears frames at 10 frames/second, you will get 100 pixels for 20 minutes, 1000 pixels for 2, and 120 frames at 10,000 pixels.

You're also out there at 207AU. New Horizons passed Pluto at 34 AU so you've got 1/6 the light.

Now here's the thing. I've worked with some weird fuckin' metals in my day. For attaching spark plugs to hearts we used an 80/20 platinum/iridium alloy cooked up special just for us. You don't alloy platinum for anything but jewelry and catalysts, that I know of. And yet ole Avi Loeb did some trawling out Australia way and turned up an 8mm curl of platinum-manganese wire.

I have spent some time trying to find a manufacturer of platinum manganese wire. Closest I've gotten is an outfit that will make it for you if you order it. I don't know what you'd use it for. It's probably a lot like steel but more corrosion-resistant. And when Dr. Loeb went "so we found this thing" everyone went "it's obviously natural, you crank."

Even though nobody else has ever found platinum-manganese wire in nature before.

You should read his book. His argument is basically "look, space garbage is far and away the easiest explanation for the data" and then he decided to dredge up some space garbage. Further, his argument is "in an infinite universe it makes sense to get the delta V of anything you jettison at cosmic rest so no one can track you down" and that's exactly what 'Oumuamua was at. Really, he's at "space garbage is probably boring AF but it's also the most likely sign we'll ever find that there are other intelligent species out there, so why not look" and I gotta say, he makes a compelling argument.

But 8mm hairs of platinum manganese aren't likely to slaughter cows so it's boring.