Professor Says ETs May Hitch Rides on Rogue Planets
The search for extraterrestrials in space continues as a new theory is proposed: Could rogue planets be used as spacecraft by alien hitchhikers?
Free-floating “rogue” planets are interstellar objects with planetary masses that are not gravitationally bound to a star. Scientists predict there could be billions of free-floating rogue plants in space.
With this in mind, Irina Romanovskaya, a professor of physics and astronomy at Houston Community College just published a new study proposing aliens could hitch a ride on these rogue planets.
She writes, “I propose that extraterrestrial civilizations may also use free-floating planets as interstellar transportation to reach, explore and colonize other planetary systems. I discuss how extraterrestrial civilizations may travel from their home worlds to free-floating planets, and how they may transfer from their free-floating planets to other planetary systems.”
And as Romanovskaya wrote in an email to VICE, “Some advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, if they exist, might hitch a ride on free-floating planets… which is why I call such hypothetical civilizations Cosmic Hitchhikers.”
Is this idea so far-fetched? Or could it be possible?
Nick Pope worked for the UK’s Ministry of Defense covering UFOs, he said, “Alien civilizations might use rogue planets as a means to travel, they might hitch a ride — why not?” Pope asked. “I think one can’t help but think back to the whole mystery of Oumuamua, which professor Avi Loeb at Harvard thinks is artificial.”
“Does that tie in with the sort of thing being postulated in this paper? Some sort of planet, but if it’s being used by extraterrestrials, would they add on something to it? Would they slap a propulsion system on it? Or just drift through the cosmos on an interstellar object? (It’s) fascinating speculation and food for thought,” he said.
Romanovskaya also gave advice on how to find them. She argues that a technologically advanced civilization would leave techno-signatures such as infrared and electromagnetic radiation or low-frequency radio emissions.
And an alien civilization that colonized one planetary system would use some of the same tactics to colonize more, and therefore, “wide-orbit exoplanets should be searched for extraterrestrial techno-signatures or artifacts.”
So far, this paper has been received as an interesting theory time will tell if the powers that be will take her advice and look at rogue planets for extraterrestrial hitchhikers.
NASA Announces How It Will Report ET Contact
NASA Chief Bill Nelson says looking for extraterrestrial life is part of NASA’s mission, as its top scientists call for a detailed system for classifying ET life.
In a huge departure from the US government’s historical treatment of UFOs and possible ET life, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in an interview with University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato, “[W]ho am I to say that planet Earth is the only location of a life form that is civilized and organized like ours?”
Meanwhile, top NASA scientists are calling for a scaled system for reporting any evidence of extraterrestrial life modeled after NASA’s progressive scale of Technological Readiness Level already in use for new spaceflight equipment.
Instead of the binary “life or no life” way of looking at off-planet discoveries, these scientists are suggesting a more nuanced way of reporting what they find. Cheryl Costa, retired journalist, UFO statistician, and author of the UFO Sightings Desk Reference, thinks it’s about time.
“I think it’s long overdue, they’ve been talking about this stuff for years. They know that there have been unidentified things in our skies since biblical times,” Costa said. “The fact that they’re finally owning up to the idea of classifying alien life. Their scale is going to have to run the range of organic molecules all the way up to sentient beings, so it needs to be a pretty big scale, and it’s nice to start seeing bonified scientists looking at this issue and saying ‘OK, we need to do this.'”
And what about NASA Administrator Bill Nelson’s comments?
“I think it’s refreshing that the NASA chief came out and said ‘Yeah, maybe’ on the UFOs and off-world life. I think they still know more than they’re telling us. I’m happy NASA is coming out with this stuff, I think they’re trying to feed it to us a little spoonful at a time. They don’t want to scare the populace,” Costa said.
