Astronomers in the US have begun an electronic eavesdropping operation targeting the passing asteroid named Oumuamua, in a search for alien life on the cigar-shaped celestial object.
The organisers of the Breakthrough Listen programme started the operation on Wednesday at the Green Bank Telescope in the US state of West Virginia. Among the supporters are famed British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.
After being examined for 10 hours, "there seems to be no signs that this is something other than a chunk of matter in space", a spokeswoman for the programme told dpa on Thursday.
Last month, Oumuamua became the first asteroid observed by modern telescopes to pass the Earth having originated outside our solar system. The 400-meter-long, elongated asteroid has amazed scientists with its unusual shape.
It was first spotted on October 19 at the Pan-STARRS 1 observatory in Hawaii.
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Breakthrough Listen researchers suggest Oumuamua could be more than just an asteroid; its odd shape could indicate that it is an interstellar spaceship, designed to minimise friction with gases and dust in space.
Ruediger Jehn of the European Space Agency (ESA) considers the spaceship thesis unlikely. "But I'm not laughing about it," he said. "These are renowned scientists."
"This form is probably more common than we think, but most of the time asteroids are too far away and too dark for us to spot them," said Jehn.
The Breakthrough Listen program is financed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. It is dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and aims to monitor 1 million stars and 100 neighbouring galaxies.
