--- title: "Boring Scientists Say Strange “Oumuamua” Space Object Wasn’t Alien, Just Gassy" description: "Remember Oumuamua, that weird and possibly-alien object that flew past Earth back in 2017? Some scientists have a boring explanation for what it was." date: "2023-03-24" modified: "2023-03-27" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/oumuamua-not-alien-gas" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "`oumuamua" - "avi loeb" - "Comets" - "the digest" --- # Boring Scientists Say Strange “Oumuamua” Space Object Wasn’t Alien, Just Gassy ![Remember Oumuamua, that weird and possibly-alien object that flew past Earth back in 2017? Some scientists have a boring explanation for what it was.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Move Over, Oumuamua Remember Oumuamua, that weird and [allegedly alien]() object that [flew past Earth back in 2017](), when we were all so young and starry-eyed? Now, some scientists have a new and boring explanation for what it was — and reader, it may have nothing to do with aliens. In a new [study published in the journal *Nature*]() this week, astronomy researchers out of Cornell and Berkeley suggested that Oumuamua, the interstellar interloper that whizzed past Earth in 2017 and has [puzzled](), [mesmerized](), and [frustrated]() astronomers ever since, may well have been a gas-propelled comet with a tail so faint that we couldn't see it. Perhaps the most head-scratching facet of the Oumuamua mystery is that the object, which was 400 feet long and first detected by astronomers in Hawaii, didn't have the same kind of tail as a comet. Paired with its unusual shape, that lack of tail led Harvard astronomer and [alien hunter Avi Loeb]() to an out-of-this-world conclusion: that Oumuamua — which means "scout" in Hawaiian — [was alien in origin](). ## Space Snoozefest This gas comet theory, which was dreamed up by Jennifer Bergner, an astrochemist at the University of California, Berkeley, and defended by Cornell postdoctoral astronomy researcher Darryl Z. Seligman, offers a somewhat tidier, albeit less fantastical, explanation: that the object, which some have posited may have been an asteroid, was actually a comet, and was propelled by hydrogen gas that came from a potentially icy core. "We show that this mechanism can explain many of Oumuamua’s peculiar properties without fine-tuning," Bergner and Seligman wrote in their *Nature* paper. "This provides further support that Oumuamua originated as a planetesimal relic broadly similar to solar system comets." "What’s beautiful about Jenny’s idea," [Seligman said in a UC Berkeley press release](), "is that it’s exactly what should happen to interstellar comets. We had all these stupid ideas, like hydrogen icebergs and other crazy things, and it’s just the most generic explanation." Naturally, there are people — Loeb, for one — who aren't buying it. Loeb pointed *Futurism* toward a [new paper]() he published in response, arguing that the new paper in *Nature* miscalculated the surface temperature of Oumuamua in a way that voided its findings. "The authors of the new paper claim that it was a water ice comet even though we did not see the cometary tail," the Harvard firebrand said in an emailed [statement to the *New York Times*](). "This is like saying an elephant is a zebra without stripes." **More on space theories:** [*Scientists May Have Just Discovered New Oceans in Two of Uranus' Moons*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()